NOVEMBER 24, 1939 SOCIALIST APPEAL THE LABOR WITH WHITE SKIN CANNOT EMANCIPATE ITSELF WHERE LABOR WITH BLACK SKIN IS BRANDED. KARL MARX.
Riveting War Chains on Labor Hands Off the NEGRO QUESTION Trade Unions, Mr. Roosevelt The CIO and the Third Term workers.
By GEORGE CLARKE Roosevelt WPA administration the Day dictatorship plans of any official of the American govBy JOHNSON The New York and New Jersey fired the WPA strikers for re the Roosevelt administration ernment should never attempt to State Cio conventions meeting maining away from worker ve STALINISTS MEET ISSUE drive the American people into Negroes in Steel (Continued)
last weekend adopted unanimous days. In Minneapolis, where a FACING BOTH WAYS war. We are against war. Potash Let us continue with our examination of the Negro In the steel spoke in a similar vein. Continued from Page 1)
for President Roosevelt. Exactly mied such quick strikebreaking The resolutions for the third How can anyone say he is industry, as portrayed by Cayton and Mitchell in their book, Black Workers and the New Unlons.
put Dome) Daugherty used it to secure the injunction which one month was required for the the men were turned loose on term at the New York and New against war, and support the The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers for years did practically nothing to organize the Negroes or for that kneed liberal, in Congress and in the legal profession, ad San Francisco smashed the railway shopmen strike of 1922. Every weak non committal position at the teurs. The frameup trials and unanimously. The Jersey resolu now. Up until now the presimatter, anybody else. The union officials passed resolutions and talked about accepting Negro workers as well as whites, but they did mits that the Sherman Act use against labor is a flagrant jump on the land to convictions of WPA workers in tion was made unanimous after aldent hus made his biggest strides bandwag that city on the charge of con vote of 96 66 carried it. These towards plunging the US into the on in double quick time. spiracy is the direct work of unanimous votes included the del war. Up until now a five bilnothing to bring numbers of Negroes into the union, even after the anti labor weapon.
passage of the National Industrial Relations Act. The whion con Sherman Act Dragged Out Again There is little doubt that an Roosevelt Department of Jus egates from the Stalinist control lion dollar armament program attitude of open hostility on the tice. The vicious onslaught now led unions. Have the stalinist has been passed. Up until now tinued its policy of equality in words and segregation in action.
part of John Lewis to the being carried on by the men trade union officials bucked the the United States has been turnBut among the new unions formed after the NRA, there was a One sure sign of the growth of reaction is the reappear third term campaign would have against the teamsters movement party line of opposition to Roose ed into an armory for the Allies ing that without them it was impossible to win the plant was large. recognizance of the Sherman Act as an active weapon against labor. made the passing of these resolu of the Midwest is part and par weit, maid. down by Earl Browder under the new Neutrality Law.
bosses. Wherever the proportion of Negroes in the That sign came in April of this year the Apex hosiery tions at the state conventions dif cel of Roosevelt anti. labor in his Boston speech? Browder Up until now the president the workers made a determined drive. An interview with a worker case when a Federal judge fined the hosiery workers un pened in the month to give Lewis Justice prosecutions of building The President and his Admin have been indistinguishable from public declarations on the war in McKeesport, Penna. shows in a few words the role of the Negro ion three quarters of a million dollars under this law for a a change of heart is not known. trades unions throughout the istration succumb more and more those of the belligerents. Up unin steel: every day to the greed for profits til now the President has used sit down strike. And since then, an even surer sign, has The deal that Lewis made with country. Negroes must be organized here if the union is to have any Roosevelt trading CIO support in the same period the person by American monopoly capital. the Department of Justice and show at all; It would be Impossible to ignore them completely been the return to this weapon by the government itself, to the president in return for nel of the National Labor Rela and makes use of its former pres the FBI as a political police to because of their great numbers, especially since difficulties have unprecedented since Daugherty used it against the railway miserly concessions in war time? tions Board was transformed to tige among the masses to secure frame up and smash the labor been experienced in bringing in the highly skilled American shopmen in 1922.
has remained the property of meet the demands of the Nation their acceptance of the program movement. Up until now the secret conferences. All we know al Manufacturers Ass and the of Wall Street.
President has taken almost every The five types of union activity which the Department that in the disagreement in Chamber of Commerce. So ut That the president fed the step in the war game but the acOutstretched Hand Not Enough of Justice letter outlaws under the Sherman Act read as if CIO top circles on the third term, terly hostile to labor interest greed for profits by American tual declaration of war.
But the Negro has behind him three hundred years of deception they were very specific and, on their face, unjustifiable un Hillman point of view appears is this new Labor Board that nonopoly capital since the day That Quill and Potash, who and exploitation by whites. Many whites make the mistake of think ion practices until we examine them and discover that to have prevailed.
the CIO national convention ad he took office Browder cannot have been accomplices in every he who forget everything and accept it. It is not so easy. Many of they are in reality blanket rules being established against cret conclaves with Roosevelt. the labor board as little as pos recalls, the President was stan wip balkhat Pemberinden ter were the white workers found that they had to make a special effort to labor.
get Negroes in. One of the most frequent methods adopted was to Take one of these types, jurisdictional strikes. To make labor movement there is not the gineered this change in the labor Co. Browder no longer backs to deceive little children. But that Roosevelt only because Roose they were able to support Rooseget Negro speakers to address meetings. And certain lodges elected it sound good, Arnold letter points out that the AFL has trade union said entirely aside DIOTATORSHIP OVER LABOR policy. Hence the decree to the list line: so long as Roosevelt and to back Roosevelt in velt foreign policy is no longer velt up until now is just anothNegrees to ottices in the uniones son into the precrtai or the condemned jurisdictional strikes. It is true that the AFL 100m. These eine ROOSEVELT PREPARES FOR consistent with Stalin foreigner way of expressing the StalinNegroes. In Homestead, Penna. the financial secretary of Spirit of has moved to put an end to the jurisdictional strikes be labor commits hara kiri every Side by side with these overt party members and all its trade Stalin were in the same war 1892 Lodge No. 172 tells of the great success that follows the elec tween building trades unions, and every progressive union time it supports a capitalist can actions against labor came meas unionists to go into opposition. camp, the president record tion of Negroes to office: ist is opposed to such conflicts between bona fide unions. Then the rest of them came in droves. They are a clannish bunch, passing word of all such developments around But many a time an anti labor employer, unable to fight a record in the past year has been nomical to the trade unions. Bution, Michael Quill of the Trans. stalih nos fumpa shtet the whet. Hons of dollars were appropriated port Union and Irving Potash of camp, we must be vigilant and among themselves. Each man brings his friends, and the next union head on, resorts to the device of evading the union for the super. armamenta pro the Fur Workers, as well as other watch everybody from Washingmeeting the friend brings other friends, until enormous numdemands by forcing the workers into a fake or impotent ROOSEVELT ATTACKS gram for America Imperialist Stalinists, voted for the Third ton down. 18 Potash put it.
bers of them attend in force.
union. Sometimes CIO or AFL officials help bosses put THE LABOR MOVEMENT intervention in the war. Roose Term resolution. In New Jersey It isn exactly consistent to The two areas where most Negroes filed into the union were The heaviest blows the labor velt War Department staff 66 delegates, most of them Stal call Roosevelt an agent of moPittsburgh and Birmingham, one in the heart of the industrial dis this over. We have only to recall the notorious examples of movement received in the past worked out the last details for inista, at first voted against the nopoly capital, to urge distrust brites bour he northeast and the other in the backward South. This the AFL giving a charter to the blue card company union year came from Washington. In the military strait jacket to be Third Term resolution. How is and vigilance on the one hand, shows us once more lesson that we must never forget that in the in the tri state lead fields, so that thereafter the unionization last analysis it is economic relations which are decisive in politica.
fight of the CIO smelter workers was, formally, a jurisdic were fung of the WPA rolls at bo openly enters the war. In the with the acid test of going into a third term. It isn consistent, No Racial Question in Profits tional strike against the AFL union. or when the AFL his own words: We must and Day dictatorship over labor were Hilman and the Roosevelt ad icy is a fake from beginning to The economic relation is decisive in politica. The capitalist does chartered Oganic Progressive Miners to fight the United shall finish with this business of seated its worst enemies, appoint ministration, Quill and Potash end. That why there not to not allow race prejudice to interrupt his poirats. When union activi Mine Workers. particularly flagrant example of the CIO Woodrum Bill drove an ake into of the firm of Morgan and to lose by fully supporting the po Potash in the Daily Worker. The ties became threatening, the owners in one factory tried a novel way descending to this level is a CIÒ Stalinist controlled oil all WPA standards by equalizing the fourth a scion of another of sition of the Kremlin bureaucra stalinists are not mobilizing the of splitting the workers. Previously Negroes were not allowed to workers local in Minneapolis and St. Paul, which will the differential between North the Sixty Families.
cy. In New Jersey, on the other masses against Roosevelts war third helpers. To divide the working class, the company promoted work with any boss against the legitimate locals in the wage standards by increasing the the support tendered him by the crats could make the gesture of frighten Roosevelt into coming to In face of Roosevelt record, hand, second line union bureau policy: they are merely trying to well pasa sob in the whole mill. This had double effected house field, affiliated to the Teamsters Union.
Under the ruling of the Department of Justice, any time rate of pay. It was a gentle hint bodies can be characterized as a unanimous vote without facing camp. The Stalinist opposition to the union. And the other Negroes in the shop felt that at last promo any stooge local connives with a boss to prevent real union down the wage scales of skilled ests of labor, callous and soorn in store for top leaders like quin is the Lewis Hiliman defense of tion was open to them and they therefore became much cooler to ization, the real union, if it fights back, is liable to prosecu workers.
ful in its disregard of the rank and Potash at the hands of Lewis. the workers against Roosevelt.
union organization.
tion under the Sherman Act. So much for one of the specia STALINIST SPEECHES SHOW white workers paying for of and alwritination against the men noes. We shan mwee more of this fie types of union activity outlawed by the Department inte det strike action throughout tons. The leadership of the CO BARTINISINE PER PUERISE The CIO organizing drive two The speeches of Quill and Pot and three years ago became a tween the workers and the bosses, the great majority of Negro show that they are equally vicious.
in the future. But in any serious competition, on a large scale, be of Justice. We could similarly analyze the other four to tion, union busting decree, Franktionary War Deal administration ash, qualifying their support of crusade of effective strike moveMurphy. Roosevelt Attorney around the ankles of the workers. Roosevelt are perfect General, made the Hitlerito pro And by this fact, it is in advance of how spurious and bitrallescats only because the workers, white brothers Economic relations, though not the whole story, are The Aim Is Wage Cuts nouncement: You can strike committing the American unlons the third camp, seized the handle the most important part of the story against the government. to supporting Wall Street im the new radical line of the of opportunity in their own But that isn all. In addition to the five specific examMany of the Negro workers are sympathetic to the union. They When they did nevertheless perialist war. By this action, the know that they will get little from the company, but what they fear ples, the Department of Justice makes two blanket prohibi strike against the government, CIO leaders become a partner to We belleve, said Quill, that the cro today needs a third endorsing a third term at this camp again. This time to beat is that in the event of a closed shop the white workers might distions. Unions, it declares, may not act as a private police time is correct. But we are deal back the war mongering Lewiscriminate against them. This has happened in many unions and force to perpetuate unnecessarily costly and uneconomic ing with the President record Hillman supporters of war mongnothing but the most vigilant honesty and fair play on the part of men, who put any amount of money and men over a fifteen only up until now. From now on er Roosevelt and the Stalinist the white workers can break down this justified distrust. Yet despite practices in the housing industry. And, furthermore, prethese difficulties, the unions were able to attract and to hold venting improved methods of prodution is another labor month period into cooking up a frameup against seven of labor has no right to predict war. mongering supporters of what the President will do. And war mongers Hitler Stalin.
Negroes.
the teamsters union leaders.
activity which goes beyond any legitimate labor purpose.
while we now adopt this resolu third camp of the rank and Just what Thurman Arnold means in outlawing unnecNor could the Sherman Act, with any amount of stretch tion and support him, we remind Ale from the shops and factories Equality Begins Among Workers ing, cover the dirtiest job of all which the men are now and warn the entire labor move against the war and against capAn important part of this work is the election of Negro officers. essarily costly and uneconomic practices in the housing inIn nearly every important lodge in the Pittsburgh area this has dustry will be understood if we recall what this same Ascarrying out in Minneapolis. As part of the nation wide ment that it should look out and italist reaction at home! That is see that President Roosevelt and the need of the hour.
taken place. First of all the lodges began by electing Negroes to sistant Attorney General told the Temporary National Ecostrike of WPA workers, the Minneapolis labor movement called out the projects. Because the Minneapolis AFL unNegroes came into the union, these voted for additional colored nomic Committee on July in a speech announcing that the officers. And finally all the workers, white and black, recognized the Department of Justice was shortly to investigate the conions are progressive enough to understand the need for unity between employed and unemployed, and the unemMarxism In Our Times capabilities of certain among the Negro officials and voted for them struction industry.
without regard for the color of their skin. In Clairton, Penna. for It was a tirade against the labor unions in the construcployed and WPA workers there were a recognized section instance, according to an interview, of the union movement, the WPA strike there was more tion industry. Tucked away in it was one paragraph which by Leon Trotsky There were more colored than white elected to office. Here admitted that unlawful restraints (by labor) are not the effective than elsewhere. In addition, the Minneapolis labor In Clairton there are about ten whites to one colored person.
When the nomination came off, they nominated whom they only sources of high construction mosts. Credit facilities movement has been in the vanguard of labor advances AN INTRODUCTION TO: wanted. We put up as many Negroes as we could.
offer one of the outstanding means of reducing ultimate since 1934 and its militant policies have inspired successful We voted by secret ballot. They had a colored man and a white costs. Land values are often high. Remedies. however union campaigns throughout the country.
man watching the ballot box. Six colored were nominated and of these, four were elected. Mr. was elected corresponding for these ills) are not within the scope of this report.
For all these crimes the men were dispatched to representative, financial secretary, trustee, and And having thus dismissed the real reasons for high costs Minneapolis. During the WPA strike they disguised themanother trustee. 200 page abridgement of the first volume of Karl selves as strikers and went on the picket lines what dirty of housing, Arnold went after the labor movement When the Negro sees that he can make his influence felt and Marx CAPITAL, including a brilliant exposition of can elect some of his race to office, he can more easily turn his back We can say to labor, You can get the same thing work they did there is yet to be unearthed, but it is clear they performed the malodorous role of agents provocateurs.
the fundamental principles of Marxism in the light of on the bosses. It is in this way that the great battle for equality not the heavy industries are getting: a greater annual inmodern day events. An entire section is devoted to the only on the economic but on the political and social field will be won.
come, based on having more work to do during the Then they worked for months cooking up a case against The Homestead, Penna. lodge, according to one of its officers, newer reformist movements, especially the Roosevelt year, without need to stretch the hours of work and the the strikers. They have so far succeeded in railroading con. held a couple of bingo games and a dance, all of which New Deal. Also examines the perspectives of the victions against eight defendants; the third trial, involving Negroes attended in force with their ladies. At the dance, held rate of pay on each particular job. Times, July American and International labor and revolutionary in the lower section of the city near the Negro district, there 8, 1939)
25 WPA workers, is now on, and a total of 150 have been movement.
were no restrictions. Dancing was mixed racially and sexually, Surrender your union wage rates and submit to a speedindicted.
whites with Negro partners. danced with a Negro girl myself, Negroes enjoyed themselves immensely and there was no kicks up, in return for an unguaranteed and unguaranteeable In the Minneapolis persecutions, the FBI stands revealed This book, PRICED AT 00 by the publishers, from the whites. This lodge will soon have a picnle which will in all its foul viciousness. For here they are not dealing with promise of more work per year this is the Department of also be mixed.
those non existent figures, the well paid aristocrats of Longmans Green Co. There are many such successful attempts, despite some failures. Justice openly avowed program for the construction in the building trades, but with half starved WPA and unem TOGETHER WITH ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION This attempt of the workers to get together, naturally suffers dustry, backed up by the men, frameup trials and the from the tremendous pressure to which they are subjected by the Sherman Anti Trust Act. That what Arnold now means ployed workers. There the War Deal of the Roosevelt either to race prejudices of a bourgeois society. But it is here that the battle by outlawing unnecessarily costly and uneconomic pracgovernment in all its nasty nakedness!
for racial equality must be fought, and it is here that it can be tices in the construction industry.
During the First World War and the post war years, the THE NEW INTERNATIONAL won. Not in dances in Greenwich Village, or by bourgeois hosts and FBI was an anti labor political police, carrying out the hostesses who invite intelligent Negroes to their houses for dinner or In order to show that they are enlightened and above the vulgar Men Supplement Sherman Act Palmer Red Raids, systematic strike breaking and snoopNor is this all. The Sherman Act, even by the most diffi ing against the unions. All that was done away with after SOCIALIST APPEAL some of them do not. But their activities, their parties and lunches cult stretching, is an insufficient basis for all the prosecu1924, under Attorney General Harlan Stone or so they are a mere drop in the ocean. They are not important. Black and (Subscription rate, 00 per year)
white workers struggling together for socialism will bring equality, tions which the Department of Justice is now conducting said. Labor was given a solemn promise that the FBI would and nothing else will.
against the labor movement.
not be employed on prosecutions against the labor moveThe FBI has just railroaded convictions against seven ment.
for 25 teamsters union leaders of Des Moines, Sioux City and That promise, it is now as plain as day, has been broken.
Omaha. The original charge was one for the local police The FBI, as Brother Smith of the Omaha Drivers has put ORDER NOW!
Soolslist Appeal 116 University Place courts: that fifteen months previously a truck had been al it, is being turned into an anti labor political police.
New York City.
legedly damaged during a Sioux City bakery strike. As a The first step in fighting this development is for organAddress: would like to get better acquainted with your paper, the Sociale Appeal. Please send me sample copies for matter of fact, the charge was forgotten as soon as the ized labor to understand that this development has occurred.
the next few weeks.
minor strike was settled. But the Sioux City local was part The New International The facts outlined above must be tirelessly explained over of that magnificent North Central Area Drivers Council and over again in every union hall in the country, in every 116 University Place Name which is the brightest spot in the American labor movement union paper. When organized labor realizes what has hapNew York, today, having brought a twelve state area under a uniform pened, the ways and means of smashing the government contract for 350, 000 over road drivers and helpers. So union busting campaign will be easy enough to work out (Note: For Socialist Appeal subscription in Manhattan and that forgotten police court case was picked up by the and carry through.
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Sveta to Living Thoughts of Marx Address city