The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-11
Class COIIabOratiOnist Strabismus


1t is necessary for those who fall for class col
laboration to make some other argument for their
position, other than that they believe in working
hard for the bosses interests. So they appear in
the guise of constructive" revolutionists, with
practical programs and they sneer at these 'wild
and visionary Communists"
We are reminded of this by the facility for
searching out 'practical" things done by the arch
reactionaries in the International Ladies' Garment
Workers Union, and the right wing of the A. c.
W., as exhibited by the New York correspondent
of the Federated Press, Art Shields
Mr.. Shields, we regret to say, has a nose for
news that is sensitive largely to the innocuous He
has found great worth in the unemployment in
surance agreement signed by the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers. But accepting the official boasts
of Mr.. Billikopf without making inquiry as to how
the rank and file workers feel about this agreement
exhibits barren reckoning Of the forces engaged
in the garment trades.
The workers in the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers union who have a left wing viewpoint,
who adhere to the program of the Trade Union
Educational League, and they are considerable
number if not the majority, are 100 per cent in
favor of unemployment insurance. Let that be I'M
derstood. But they are in fiat opposition to the
agreement upon that question: which provides that
the workers themselves shall contribute half the
relief funds yet provides that the employers COM
pletely control the fund and the payment of I'M
employment relief.
If Mr.. Shields would have not been possessed by
an astigmatism which allows Linn only to see off
Gals in the needle trades he would have noted that
the left wing has decided differences with the ar
rangement and has made these differences heard
turnout the union.
The left wing says that "The industry must sup
port the workers'-and upon that principle it OPP
poses to the present agreement the proposal that
the employers alone must furnish the unemploy-
ment funds, and and that to avoid discrimination
against active unionists it shall be administered
solely by the union. This information is Just as
important as the statements of Mr.. Billikopf,
termed "the impartial chairman of the New York
market"
Another slight item of interest in the A. G. W.,
is the of resentment that has swept the whole
union at the speech of Hillman in Chicago, in
which he openly gave up the class struggle and an
nounced that the days of strikes were over except
upon purely defensive grounds to save the union
from utter collapse.
But in the 1. L. G. W., the insensate and tyran-
nical crushing of the left wing the disfranchise-
ment Of tens of thousands, the explosions the gang
rule, the disgraceful Boston convention and the
strong rank and file movement in opposition-this
is invisible to Mr.. Shields. All he can see is den
tai clinic in New York City, which under opera
ton of the union doubtless does good work, but
which monopoIzes whole sheet Of Federated
Press news which we are compelled to throw in the
wastebasket.
Perhaps the Sigman-Abe Cahan gang expects
that they may use the dental clinic to pull the
teeth of the left wing, but we fail to discern any
reason why they should pull crossways the eyes Of
a labor press correspondent as well unless his
training in the /. w. w. has made him unusually
susceptible to this treatment