The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-10
EAR CoMRADE FOSTER: You
have asked me to state my pc.

4 u Ian 0OMIlAlJII OkD Il Ou
have asked me to state my po-
- sition regarding the policies
of the Trade Union Educational
League, and / am very glad to have
an opportunity to do so, because
am convinced that the tactics followed
by the left wing of the American la
Dor movement during the next few
years will have an important effect on
the future of the class struggle in the
United States.
N/OUR article in the November Lib
| orator, entitled "The A. F. Of L.
Convention; your article in the Jan
uary Labor Herald, called "An Open
Letter to John Fitzpatrick" and your
Industrial Report to the Workers
Party convention all are based on GER
tain assumptions, which / would sum-
Marie as follows:
1. That the decision of the Portland
convention to expel Dunno, and the
refusal of the convention to indorse
labor party and to indorse Russian
recognition represented the sentiment
Of the labor autocracy and not the
sentiment of the rank and file;
2. That the rank and file would have
acted differently had they had an op-
portunity to register their opinions on
these issues;
8. That there is a revolutionary fer
ment among the masses of American
workers.
IN the basis of these assumptions,
Ohow would you explain certain
outstanding events in the American
labor movement during the past few
years? Such events as:
I. The presence of Tom Mooney in
Jail after it has been demonstrated
and asserted by representatives of the
Federal Government that he was con-
victed on faxed testimony, and after
the repeated protests of the more pro-
gressive gfTUS1uufpls in the American la
Dor movement
2. The presence of Sacco and Van
zetti in a Massachusetts Jail under cir
cumstances almost as disgraceful to
American labor as those surrounding
Moneys continued Imprisonment?
8. The indictment, prosecution and
conviction Of members Of the Work
ers Party in western Pennsylvania;
of members of the l. w. w. in Cali
fornia; of members of the U. M. W. of
A. in West Virginia; of the Michigan
Communists? The latest reports show
ia political prisoners in state pris-
ons, serving sentences solely for the
expression of opinion or for member
ship in radical organizations"
4. The discrediting of Alex Howat in
the national convention of the United
Mine Workers; the overwhelming de-
feat of the T. U. E. L. policies in the
conventions at Scranton and at Deca-
tur, after the questions had been
threshed out in the local unions?
5. The ease with which the Press
mems Union, the International Ladies'
Garment Workers Union and other
organizations have been able t. throw
out the left wing elements without
any considerable protests from the
membership at large?
s. The very heavy losses y the
membership of such unions as the
machinists, in which there had been
no considerable internal friction?
7. The apathy and Indifference with
which the rank and file of American
workers have regarded the open
shop" drive; their eagerness to be 100
per centers along with Judge Gary
and John Rockefeller, and their un-
willingness to make stand against
the exploitation and Imperialism in
which the American rulers are so
deeply involved?
XkIHILE l do not for moment pre-
wv tend that know the answers to
all of these questions. should like to
present an explanation which ! think