Page SOCIALIST APPEAL February 19, 1938 Twin Cities Progressives Score Smashing Victory Splitters Swept Minneapolis Teamsters Sue From Top Bodies Daily Worker for Libel TRADE UNION MOVEMENT and the Party Resolutions Rorty Gives Stinging Reply To Writers Big Stel Signs Again With CIO One In Six In Depend Upon Relief One sixth of the population of New York City is dependent on some form of relief.
Elections Drive Them according to the findings in a Martyred Unionist Complaint Lists Repeated survey quoted February 13 by From Central Labor The following is the third and last installment of the New York Times.
strike into which workers are often provoked by the brutal exPublie assistance rolls omStalinist Slanders ploitation to which they are subjected by the employers.
the resolution on the trade union question adopted Organs in Midwest Against Union brace, according to the survey. by the convention of the Socialist Workers Party.
1, 255, 000 of New York 2 For Democratic Union Control MINNEAPOLIS. With one 470, 000 men, women and clean sweep. progressive slates The same general propositions hold true of so called umCharging that the Daily Work. children and the number is Precisely because of the intensely political and. polemical en authorized strikes. The left wing strives at all times to obin the Minneapolis Central Labor er, official organ of the Com. rising at the rate of 5, 000 per vironment in which our party has developed, it is necessary to Union and the St. Paul Trades tain the maximum amount of support, both from the officialdom munist Party published false, week.
emphasize a number of fundamental, clementary guiding lines of its own union and from working class organizations as a and Labor Assembly last month malicious and defamatory state. This revealing statistical for our trade union work.
drove out of office local Stalinwhole, for all the actions which it advocates, strikes included.
ments about them, five leaders of picture of capitalism in dee. The party is the leader and guide of all the work of its memists and their fronts who have We oppose the bureaucratic conception that the calling of strikes Minneapolis largest union filed line points the urgent need bers in the trade unions. Without party leadership and guidance, long been striving to split and suit this week in the Federal for organization and militant all trade union work inevitably degenerates into opportunism is the exclusive prerogative of the international officials of a Taid established unions in the Court of the Southern District action by the workers, both and becomes a hinduance to revolutionary progress. In his mass given union, and we advocate the widest democratic control of Twin Cities of New York, claiming damages employed and unemployed, to the strike weapon by the rank and file, vested, in the first place, work, the party member must not become a mere trade unionA number of other progressive of 335, 000. 00. The complaint is prevent the capitalists and ist, or forget the need of imbuing the trade union movement in the hands of the local and district unions and in the shop developments have occurred in probably the longest on record their government from loadcommittees which must be set up everywhere and which must the Twin Cities area during the in any libel suit, covering over with a revolutionary political class consciousness. However, in ing the burdens of the crisis have the most immediate charge of protecting the interests of past month, the effect of which order effectively to pursue his work in the trade union move100 pages and 16 exhibits.
onto their backs to fight for has greatly strengthened the the workers and enforeing the provisions of any agreement enterment the revolutionist must understand keenly the importance of Local 544 of the General Drivsocialism as the only way out ed into between the employers and the employees.
union movement in this section.
crs Union of Minneapolis, af.
of the blind alley of capitalapproaching his fellow unionists and their problems not so much On January 8 the annual on the basis of his own consciousness and experience, but rather While taking proper cognizance of the fact that the rules of elections in the General Drivers filiated with the American Fedtellino.
on the basis of the level of consciousness and the degree of exmany trade unions require official permission from the internaLocal 514 were held, resulting ration of Labor, William tional officials before a strike may be called, and orienting our Brown, the president of the Local, pertence of the average trade unionist.
in the return of all officers to selves accordingly, we cannot ignore the fact that the internaTo approach the trade unionist, trade union problems or even Farrell Dobbs, Grant Dunne, their previous posts. Bill Brown Miles Dunne and Vincent Dunne, tional officialdom of the various unions are not only opposed, the trade union leadership in exactly the same manner in which won the race for president, the all leaders of the Union, are the one political organization deals with a rival political organizagenerally speaking, to the use of the strike weapon, but sabotonly office which was contested, plaintiffs. Morris Forkosch of tion, would result in self isolation. The revolutionist must be age it when it is employed. Situations are therefore quite conby a to vote.
New York is the attorney coconscious of his political role, but at the same time also of the ceivable in which the only way the rank and file can obtain lega!
Miles Dunne Elected operating with Albert Goldman, fact that he is dealing, in the first place, with trade union probpermission for a strike at certain times is by forcing the hand Chicago labor attorney and atlems and with workers who have not as yet developed beyond at of the officialdom by what the latter often start by condemning On January 14 the Minncatorney for Leon Trotsky during trade union consciousness.
as an outlaw strike polis Teamsters Joint Council the hearing of the Dewey ComThe excellent work which our comrades have already done in demonstrated the harmony existThe Immediate Tasks of the Party mission in Mexico.
various unions shows the vast, untapped possibilities for partiing in the ranks of the local PATRICK CORCORAN Malicious Slanders cipation in the class struggle and recruitment to the revolutionary driving crafts by unanimously Tells Few Home Truths The party sets itself the Yollowing immediate tasks for its party which opened up before us by a serious and system work in the trade unions.
agreeing upon the new executive board. Miles Dunne was elected In the complaint it is alleged To Communist Stooge atic work in the trade unions.
The immediate registering of all party and YPSL members to the post of secretary treasurthat on 16 different occasions the Organization in order to have complete record of the trade or profession of er, the office formerly held by the Daily Worker falsely and maliciSerious, Responsible Approach Needed each member, union affiliation or eligibility, position in the trade martyred Pat Corcoran.
ously designated the plaintiffs stinging rebuff to a well serious approach to the trade unions and their problems, union, ete. ete. On January 14 the St. Paul as Trotskyite racketeers, gang. known Stalinist stooge organiza and not a hyper critical one, is the need; a responsible attitude sters, gunmen and associates of tion, the so called League of Trades and Labor Assembly, at Every effort must be made immediately to have every eligible the largest delegate assembly Would Avoid Difficulties World. The plaintiffs assert that Avered by James Rorty, promi attitude of methodical. patient entightenment of the politically toward the work of building the trade unions and our influence non trade unionist in the party join the union of his trade or within them, and not a lightminded, experimental one; an industry and take an active part in its life.
inbor St. Paul Grand Jury report With Fat War Orders the Stalinist Communists are in nent radical author and journalWherever two or more members of the party and the YPSL which, inspired by the Citizens undeveloped worker on the basis of his day to day experiences a conspiracy to injure their re ist and a member of the American Coming Soon Alliance, was intended to be a belong to the same union, they are to constitute themselves a putation among the workers of Committee for the Defense of high political approach to him.
in the unions and in the class struggle, and not a supercilious, party trade union fraction, to work under the direction of the weapon against the drivers move.
the whole country and particul. Leon Trotsky.
ment in the Twin Cities. By this NEW YORK. Big Steel last arly of Mimeapolis.
trade union department of the party.
Occasion for the rebuff was The present period also calls for a highly responsible attitude action the delegates emphatically week, renewed its agreement The suit is a direct result of a circular letter issued in the in the key question of strikes in general, and particularly sitWhere no union exists for a given trade or industry, in a teversed an earlier indorsement with the Steel Workers Organiz the killing on November 17 of name of the League to the down strikes. It is imperative to combat the defeatist, reformist given locality, our comrades must take the initiative in organizSe pou non adopcale and by maintaining the basie per day Minneapolis lubor leader. Core Signature of Donald Ogden Stewa propaganda ing the anorganized are impossible in a period of economic crisis or decline. Strikes, and victorious ones, are possible even The need of a nationally comeeted left wing in the American a few conservative union officials and 40 hour week that has pre ran was Secretary of the Joint art, asking for answers to the under such difficult circumstances; only, it is more important vailed throughout United States Council of the General Drivers following questions: Are you in that city, trade union movement is the most urgent problem in that field than ever that they be carefully organized, the moment and the today. None exists at the present time, since the old left wing Steel subsidiaries the past 12 Union and was closely associated for, or are you against Franco place deliberately chosen, and the struggle conducts in the most Split Drive Defeated movement organized by the Communist Party has been completely liquidated and dissolved into the trade union bureaucracy. In Austin, Minnesota, the the steel company signed up the complaint the Communist are you against the legal govern, portant to be aware of the danger of strikes or other actions employees initiated a campaign florted lite cunwillingness to write organ has in several articles in ment and the people of Republic confined to small minorities, harmful in general, and always Without a left wing rovement, standing on the militant platform of the class struggle, the trade union movement in this an Spain.
country is doomed to the demoralizing effects of class collaborathe union movement. The Austin fat war contracts are looming.
tending to degenerate into adventuristic movements which only responsible for the murder. They Drivers Union and the The contract signed February are specifically charged with be What He Wanted antagonize the bulk of the organized workers.
tionism and the dead hand control of the reactionary union bumovement, which in this town is 9, differs from the 1937 agreeing behind the trigger men who The sit down strike is not a universal substitute for the clussic reaucracy. Our party must take the leadership in organizing We desire, said divected by progressives, formed ment only in that it runs for an killed Corcoran.
Stewart, form of strike action (quitting the plant, mass picket line, etc. and integrating nationally the left wing movement.
a united front, beat back the indefinite period. Negotiations to print your answers. We wish but it is indubitably a proved contribution to proletarian tactics Where such groups do not yet exist, we must take the initiascabby schemes of the bosses, and can be opened be either party Methods the whole country to know what is felt by the most sensitive insand an effective weapon in their struggle. Its initiation and tive in forming them on the widest possible basis compatible through a strike won a 10 cent on ten days notice. If, after an Attorney Goldman stated that truments of the national life, you extension are a tribute to the resourcefulness of the proletariat with the formation of a genuinely progressive movement having hourly increase for a Miscellane additional ten days of negotiain finding new and powerful methods of fighting its class op a basically class struggle platform. Progressive groups should ous Workers Union of the tions, agreement is not reached the Stalinists are transferring American writers. Your verslict pressor It has served, moreover, the important end of break their frame up methods from has world importance.
be conceived of not only as fields of recruitment for the revolu5. committee of 150 Minnea the contract is null and void.
tionary party, but as the means for setting in motion the largest polis union officials has been Moscow to the rest of the world. On February 4, Rorty voplied ing down an awesome respect for bourgeois private property Open Shop Prevails which the ruling class instills in the proletariat from its child The Moscow trials which have as follows: number of workers at a given time for the advancement of a formed to draw up and present hood onward. It is our duty to defend this weapon against all left wing position and a left wing leadership. It is not a precalculated to return to the trade presents only its own members, followed by a wave of terror in your mailing list by mistake.
to Governor Benson demands As before, the re been designated a frame up by Dear Mr. Stewart. take it my name kot on attempts to suppress, discredit or outlaw it. This does not sig. condition for our participation that from the outset we have the nify that we advocate the indiscriminate use of the sit down at leadership of such groups, but it is an absolutely minimum conin Farmer Labor Party circles. the open shop. Union officiul di France, Spain and now in the Since have never been asked all times and in all cases. We judge its feasibility on the same dition that we have the right to advocate and defend our own Benson and a group of Stalinist not ask for a closed shop, it was of Juliet Poyntz, a former Com. Writers, must assume that United States. The disappearance to join the League of American general considerations which determine our tactics in strikes: position in the ranks of the general progressive group.
stooges, backed by the Commun reported.
general objective conditions, the state of the union, mood of the ist Party, are seeking to carry While the contract was osten munist Party, and the obvious of the term writer or American of achieving the objective, etc. etc.
munist who broke with the Com do not come under your definition membership, position of the employers and the state, possibilities Platform of the Left Wing the far to the right into sibly negotiated between the a People Front stew of right union and Carnegie Illinois Steal, to use the Robinson Rubenses for of the Soviet writer.
The left wing movement should stand on the following general wing ers, New Deal De it will apply to all sulwidiaries the paypose of implicating anti think it is sufficiently well known platform: Sit Down Has Significant Future However that may be. mocrats and progressive Min of Steel Union officials Stalinist elements in this country that am gainst Praneo and Against class collaboration and for a prolicy of class struggle.
nesota Republicans, thus isolat. estimated that 500, 000 steel work in some fantastic plot, are seThe sit clown strike has, however, an even more significant For the luilest inner union democracy for all members of the ing in P. circles the proers will be under similar agree house indication chat not only Purcism and for the legal owfuture before it than the ordinary strike. Precisely because it union and for all from Against the attempt to illegalize and pressive union movement of the ments before negotiations are Trotskyists but all honest tradement and the people of Rechallenges the fundamental tenet of capitalism, the invioluble suppress all minority groups in the unions, such as has been done state concluded right of private property in the means of production, the sit. in the International Ladica Garmont Workers Union, and for the down strike seems to be one of the main indicated means of mass Demands To De Made system of group rights in the union such as prevails, for example ing as a victory for the ingly careful.
Union officials hailed the sign. Stalin regime must be exceed against Franeo and Fascism.
action by virtue of the seizure of the plants and their temin the International Typographical Union.
The committee of unionists policy of maintaining wageAgainst ascist Metheds porary control by workers committees. for realizing in the hope that this suit will help For the normal functioning of all unions and against bureauwill demand of Benson that he levels despite priee cuts, especial defend all anti Stalinist elements am also for the legal governcoming period the slogan of: Workers control of production!
cratically appointed organizers and leaderships such as prevail return the coming stately as Stoel used the occa in the labor movement and with ment of Republican Spain when the deepening of the present crisis will push this slogan to the in most of the Organizing Committees of the For convention from Duluth to sto sion to announce reductions in check the unbridled Terocity or as and if it opposes the unscrupul foreground and properly directed by the revolutionary party, immediate holding of conventions, adoption of constitution and its.
proper dominant role in the LP.
the Stalinists in their campaign cus policies and actions of the it may become the decisive popular slogan with the masses of policies, and democratic selection of the Icadership.
Murray Satisfied to rule or ruin the labor move Communist Party of Spain, which the workers and above all the militant trade unionists.
councils, etc.
For the shop steward and shop committee system throughout uses fascist methods (murder ment, Goldman declared.
The net result of the above We reject contemptuously the arguments against the sit down Expressing his listed developments is to place with the renewal of the former and slander) and has already satisfaction the industries, integrated into the trade unions.
strikes advanced by the government authorities, the employers seriously disrupted and impaired and the trade union bureaucrats. On their lips, this opposition Against any attempt to incorporate the trade unions, against labor in Minnesota in a stronger contracts, Philip Murray, chair.
position than ever, and to assure man of the stated: the unity and the morale of the is simply one way of formulating their oppositon to strikes in all government regulation of the trade unions, and in general, against all attempts to deprive the unions of their complete class the continued progressive deve: These agreements will definitely Spanish workers. am, finally, general, as well as to all militant mass action of the workers.
against the League of American At the same time, it is necessary to point out that, as a rule, independence by subordinating them to the apparatus of the govlopment of the unions in this stem the tide of wage slashing Writers, as now organized and state.
any attempt by a small minority in a given plant or industry to ernment, which is only a machine for defending the interests which has been imminent of the capitalist class.
throughout the country.
al Communist Party innocent For the defense against the government, the employers and (Continued from page 1) club, and as such a fake and a involved, without consulting them or obtaining their agree No provisions for the better nuisance.
ment, or at a time when the majority of the workers either the trade union bureaucracy of the vital weapon of the strike, andling of grievances in the shop, JOE LUBICH a matter of great interest to the the boss class and its govern way, must ask you to use it in If you use this letter in any have not acute grievances or are not as yet conscious of them including the sit in strike.
workers actually in daily contact mental institutions. On the one full. Incidentally does it not will lead inevitably to a reaction against sit down strikes, ordinFor the amalgamation of all craft unions in a given industry ary strikes and even unionism in general on the part of the more with foremen and superinten hand, the La Guardia police brenk oceur to you and your associates With deep sorrow the Mininto industrial unions.
dents, were discussed. Such de strikes so effectively that the that when you adopt the name undeveloped workers.
Against high initiation fees and prohibitive dues systems, esneapolis branch of the Social serious and responsible attitude in this question is absolutely tails, dealing with the working New York Post was able to re League of American Writers dist Workers Party reports the pecially in the present period of unemployment and crisis.
imperative. While we do not join in the reactionary chorus of death of Joe Lubich, 48, treasAgainst the cropping of unemployed members from the rolls noved by the official negotiators. Mayor La Guardia and Police bership writers of recognized for which usually reposes upon the bureauerney, which cynically condemnation of so called outlaw strikes the responsibility urer of the Janitor Union for inability to pay the regular dues required.
No opportunity for the rank Commissioner Valentine was competence and integrity who for 20 years a member of the and file of the steel workers to voiced today by the New York have devoted far more years than ignores the legitimate demands and grievances of the workers Union Must Defend Unemployed Workmen Circle, an old so.
discuss or vote upon the agree. Chamber of Commerce because of you have to liberal and radical and while we remain steadfastly on the side of any group of cialist, and a sympathizer of the Left Opposition since ment as a whole was afforded.
For the defense by the trade unions of the interests of the un.
their efforts to enforce the law struggles, simply because they workers once they are engaged in a struggle with the capitalist 1928 against illegal picketing.
differ with the particular politic.
employed. For the organization of the unemployed by the trades class or any section of it, we are conscious of the responsibility Joe Lubich was chairman of On the other hand, LaGuardia al faction that controls your or that reposes upon us as a vanguard force, and therefore counsel unions themselves. For the affiliation in a body of the unema committee which came to relief bureaus break sit ins of the ganization, you are not merely against the indiscriminate or promiscuous use of the sit down ployed workers of a given trade or industry to the corresponding union, and for full rights of voice and vote for those workers on the General Drivers Union in EVELYN GORDON unemployed. They display anti dishonest, but guilty of prothe early hours of May. 1984, union signs in the best manner found disloyalty to the high traall questions directly affecting them and their specific problems to offer its services to the of Ford and try to intimidate the dition of the writer craft. the system employed by project workers associated with the strikers. This committee be It is with deep regret that workless from joining the Work. Truth and forthrightness are Teamsters Union in Minneapolis. came one of the main props we have to announce the ers Alliance ments, a soak the poor meathe very source spring of the death of Comrade, Evelyn For special attention to the defense of the rights and interests for food collections during the sure and the clubs of the cops PHILADELPHIA. Twenty As the depression deepens, the writer profession. You have of the young workers and apprentices, and for the annulment May and July strikes and re Gordon, a member of the double attack will grow sharper. fouled that spring, but frankly thousand workers and small who broke up the demonstra.
Brownsville Circle of the of the exceptional legislation against them now existing in the presented an important seetion The bosses will try to keep pro doubt that you are enough of merchants stormed the City tion. Only 20 years old at of the Northside labor moveunions, which prevents them from participating in the trade Hall on Saturday, January 29, The Socialist Workers Party fits up by cutting wages, laying a writer to understand that.
the time of her cleath, which ment which was thus placed union movement and its struggles with full rights.
off workers, and securing redueto protest the two per cent joined in the protest against Sincerely occurred February after a behind the strike In order that these tasks may be carried out in a systematie, ed taxes. For the coming war (signed) James Rorty, sales tax passed by a vote of the sales tax, issuing leaflets The executive board of the brief illness, our comrade was efficient and centralized manner, the convention instructs the Roosevelt is preparing to spend 15 to in the currupt boss explaining the basic reason General Drivers Union, to already an old battler for the close to two billion dollars, incoming National Executive Committee of the party to estabcontrolled city council. After for such taxes and calling for fat cause of Socialism, her necord Slice of which will go directly lions of additional unemployed gether with a large delegamonths of fake promises, the workers action to end sales lish immediately a regular Trade Union Department, with a rostion of drivers, attended the going back to the days of the into the pockets of the arma and their dependents he asks workers got what they always taxes, unemployment and bass ponsible and functioning Trade Union Secretary. The National last rites for their friend. Spartacus Youth Imens manufaturers in the shape Congress to appropriate 250. ll get from Pro Labor govern. tyranny.
Executive Committee of the YPSL shall appoint a representaLeuve to function in the party Trade Union Department attempt WAA Progressives 20, 000 Storm Philadelphia City Hall League