Federación Panamericana de TrabajoSocialismSovietStrikeWorkers MovementWorkers Party

12 THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE July 1919 Labor is Not a Commodity scab.
SA AMUEL GOMPERS has fought for years By JOHN REED.
funds and machinery and that both the Amerfor legal recognition of the fact that LaImipressions of the of Conventinn.
ican Federation of Labor and the great InternationalUnions had refused to do anything to bor Is Not a Commodity or Article of Commerce. At the Thirty Ninth Annual Conhelp Mooney, nor had the convention done vention of the American Federation of Labor tlat many of the sentences imposed were full, anything.
Concerning the Committees recommendation just ended, Mr. Gompers proudly proclaimed justified. Decided to organize the Steel Industry. against the initiative and referendum in the from the platform that he had written this sent10. Passed a resolution condemning the of interviewed Frey. His arguiment into the Peace Treaty at Paris. It deabuse of judicial powers in construing the ment was that if there were initiative and veloped that after the American delegates left law, and advising workers to disregard injunc referendum in the Federation, some outside Paris the provisions of the International Labor tions in industrial disputes.
organization would surely be able to get hold Charter had been somewhat weakened according to a cablegram from President Wilson 11. Voted down a proposal to change La of the membership and break down the orhimself, and the sacred sentiment itself had bor Day to May ist, and another to arrange it ganization. He admitted to me that the masses been changed to read Labor should not be that all contracts expire May ist because of the membership could not be trusted to make the International Labor Movement of Europe laws for themselves without the interposition regarded mere y as an article of commerce.
Andrew Furuseth said that it was as if he. which is revolutionary celebrates on that of some deliberate body, and some rule which had demanded a declaration stating Andrew day.
provided ior a period of deliberation.
Furuseth is not a scab. and instead, they had 12. Requested the President to dismiss The recognition of the Irish Republic was Postmaster General Burleson from office.
put it, Andrew Furuseth is not merely a the price paid by Gompers to the Sinn Fein 13. Voted down a proposal that the wor. politicians in the convention, in return for In the great white hall out at the end of the ers demand the right to elect their foremen. which they agreed to throttle Soviet Russia Steel Pier at Atlantic City, with the heavy. Why, said Matt Woll, speaking on this a support the League of Nations. This surges running underneath, and the sea wind motion, that is the business of the employer action was on a par with the deeds of the not the worker You might as well have Tchekho Slovaks, who, to gain their own insweeping over, six hundred delegates of the the workers elect the Board of Directors. ciependence, sold their arms to the Allied In American Labor movement met in the reconstruction convention. Said one delegate, 14. Endorsed the bill in Congress to restrict perialists for the black purpose of destroying in a spread eagle speech, Reconstruction? We creign immigration for a term of years iu the freedom of the world workers. Anyway, don need any reconstruction in this glorious cluding Mexican immigration.
it meant nothing nothing but words; and even country. All we need is a few slight re 15. Refused to support Soldiers and Sai. then, the United States Senate has demanded forms. No one suddenly dropped down in çrs Councils, and in particular, the Soldiers. practicaily the same thing.
Sailors and Marines Protective Association. The Committee objection to recognizing that ha! would have guessed that this was the 16. Refused to take a stand against the Soviet Russia was, according to Frey, because annual meeting of delegates from all sections of one of the most powerful labor movements ceportation of radical aliens.
it was not democratic.
in the world. Portly figures, good clothes, ex17. Requested the Government to repeal As far as can understand it, he said.
pensive cigars, diamond rings and pins in the Espionage Act, but only after peace is it is a government of the workers, and the workers alone. Therefore we cannot recogabundance, buttons of lodges and fraternal signed, when it will automatically cease to function anyway.
nize it!
orders Elks, Masons in whose ranks these workingmen hob nob with business men.
18. Endorsed the Labor Charter attachel The proposal to terminate all contracts with to the Covenant of the League of Nations emp. oyers on May first, and to change Labor manufacturers, members of commercial clubs and Chambers of Commerce. Few working which has been denounced by the Labor Move Day from September first to May Day, was ments of every civilized country on earth voted down for two reasons: first, because men here. It looked like the Democratic National Convention but a little more prosper and gave its qualified approval to all the words May Day was celebrated by European Labor ous looking; or like the annual Congress of and deeds of Woodrow Wilson and the Demo and Socialism and second, because if the cratic Party.
workers of the United States celebrated on the the Dress Goods Manufacturers.
And it was like that. This convention was The report of the Resolution Committee re day following the abrogation of their contracts.
commended that the Executive Council give they would be too excited! We don want composed of persons with a commodity to sell. and the commodity was Labor. Moreover, their early attention to considering ways and to have a Labor Day when every body is hotLabor was sold there in hundreds of differ launched into a bitter attack upon the Interineans to get a new trial for Mooney. Then it headed, explained Frey.
Thursday, June 19th, was taken up with the ent ways.
Let us inake a rapid survey of what was netional Workers Defense League, accusing report of the Committee on Executive Coundone by the Thirty Ninth Annual Convention the League of attempting to break down the cil Report. At 30 Louis Morones of the Ainerican Federation of Labor: Trade Union movement by taking a strike was seated as a fraternal delegate from the Sentenced Tom Mooney to life imprisreferendum of the organization. Irresponsi Mexican Federation of Labor. At 11. 30 Matt it said, found in Or Woll read the report recommending the exonment, hy condemning the July 4th General ble groups of men, Strike, and ferociously denouncing the Inter ganized Labor a rich field for exploitation! clusion of foreign immigration, which was national Workers Defense Union. An attempted general strike would, in the quickly amended and passed to apply also to Officially denounced the One Big Union words of the Committee, seriously injure the Mexican immigration. saw Morones effort to secure a new trial for Tom Mooney. afterward. He was pale, and very much agimovement, and all forms of industrial unionThe report ended: tated.
ism. The Committee would be remiss in its du3. Approved of the Initiative and Reter What effect, asked him, will this have endum in politics, and disapproved of it in ties if it failed to call attention to the fact lipon the Pan American Federation of Labor the American Federation of Labor.
that representatives of the International Work Convention, which is to meet in New York in Ignored the Winnipeg strike, and, in a ers Defense League who are its agents solicit Juiy?
speech by Gompers from the chair, ridiculed ing funds for Mooney defense are doHe wipat the sweat from his forehead.
the Seattle strike.
ing him an incalculable injury and also creat Disastrous. he said. In the present moing internal disturbances within the Trade Refused to endorse the Labor Party and inent, when the great American interests are advised against it although, owing to the tacks, unjust criticisms and misrepresentations workers believed that they could rely upon Union movement through their continuous at urging the invasion of Mexico, the Mexican strength of the movement, the Federatior. deof the American Federation of Labor, its of the American Federation of Labor to oppose clared that it would not interfere with the ficials and the officials of affiliated organiza these plans of annexation. They will not now affiliated national and international unions in this matter.
be so sure.
Patterson, of the Defense League, was given Requested the Government to recognize the floor. In a passionate speech he pointed tions came up, Andy Furuseth made a violent When the question of the League of Nathe Irish Republic and not to recognize the Soviet Republic out that for two years various labor leaders attack upon the Labor Charter in the Peace had been going around the country whisper Treaty. He declared that it had been altered Condemned the Russian people to starv ing that Mooney was guilty; that repeatedly he by the diplomats after the American delegaation wholesale by refusing to ask for the had offered the San Francisco Labor ncil tion left Paris, and that it provided, anyway, lifting of the blockade.
and the San Francisco Building Trades Coun8. Voted down a resolution demanding the that the League of Nations would be able to cil full charge of Mooney defense, and of interfere in the daily life of every worker in release of political prisoners, and declared fered to turn over to Organized Labor all the world. He said that a clause against human tions.