# The Threat to the Labor Movement/Section 16

Unity of Bosses, Government and Trade Union Officials.
CO-OPERATION of the official trade union, capitalist and socialist press in the drive against militant unionism has been shown.
Go-operation of the right wing trade union leadership with government agencies such as the industrial commission of Governor Smith has been shown by the attempt of President Sigman and Morris Hillquit, leader of the socialist party, to settle with the governor's commission over the heads of the duly elected leadership of the New York joint board in the cloakmakers' strike.
The clubbing of strikers by police and right wing gangsters during the demonstration of strikers before the Sigman headquarters and the Forward building is another instance.
The condemnation of the left wing strike leadership contained in the report of the arbitration board of three which passed on the controversy with ​the sub-manufacturers, written in by appointees of Governor Smith to aid the right wing,—is another example.
The breaking up of a regularly called meeting of the Chicago Furriers' Union by labor officials, gangsters and police is still another example as were the two meetings of left wing needle workers broken up before the furriers' meetings by the same elements.
American Federation of Labor officialdom takes a more active and open part in the drive against militant unionism in the needle trades and thus gives it the character of an official movement on a national scale. This is shown by the, appointment of Vice-President Woll, also a vice-president of the Civic Federation, as honorary chairman of the finance committee of the Sigman machine in New York.
Here is shown again a close connection between labor officialdom and capitalist agencies like the Civic Federation. (In the mad scramble of officialdom for the favor of the bosses, it has been generally forgotten that the largest union in the A. F. of L., the United Mine Workers, prohibits membership in the Civic Federation under penalty of expulsion).
Vice-President Woll is one of the important links binding labor officialdom to the employers' organizations and their instrument—the United States government. Woll keeps President Coolidge informed of the activities of labor officialdom. In a letter given wide circulation in the official labor and capitalist press during the week of November 21–28, written by Woll and addressed to President Coolidge, he said:
For a year past the country has been watching the efforts of Communists to capture and direct all the more important strikes, especially in and around New York, such as those of the cloak makers, the furriers and the Passaic textile mill workers. The American Federation of Labor is steadily defeating these efforts but there is no question that by confusing the real issue between employer and employes, the Communists have made the task more difficult.
Vice-President Woll (of the A. F. of L. and the Civic Federation) does not openly ask assistance, from Coolidge for the A. F. of L. campaign but Coolidge would have to be much less astute than he is not to be able to understand that such assistance would be welcomed as Woll is making what he believes are serious charges against the Communists.
How have the Communists, in the strikes mentioned, confused the "real issue between employer and employes," as Woll charges, and what does he mean by such a statement?
Is it a crime for Communist workers to lead or to try to lead strikes?