The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-01-03
Shop Committee Movement in the Needle Trades

the i1JJle tnaC l6 organized is IN the
dead grip of the blacklist bureaucracy
on earth, ideologically bankrupt, or
ganizationally stagnant, and in the
process of decay, the problem of or
ganizing the many millions of unor-
ganized is our major problem, this we
can only solve if we have machinery
at our disposal not dependent upon
the whims and dictates Of the bu-
reaucracy, machinery effective in
the places of work. Therefore, the
problem of shop committees in unor-
ganized territory or industries is of
primary concern to US. Moreover, our
policy of entrenchment in the existing
unions has reached a degree where
its further progress depends upon an
even much stronger entrenchment in
the factories, mills and unions We
have shown results in agitation, but
now, at the pain of stagnation, we
must have a machinery under our
influence in unorganized and organ
lied industries that will make it
ship in economic struggles, strikes,
ETC., linking our efforts and organiza-
ton in unorganized as well as organ
lied trades in a new, direct, and even
more powerful effort on the economic
field to break the stagnation and re-
dictionary leadership in the American
labor movement. 1 am firmly con-
WINGED that it can be done. If with
such handful of party members mot
more than 10 per cent of the party
membership even now participating in
our union work we could create, under
the auspicces of the T. u. Z. L., such
results, how much can we do by put
ting all our members in unorganized
industries to the task with the whole
party and T. U. E. L. strength behind
it on the basis Of the shop nuclei. 1t
goes without saying that the party
shop nuclei must be the heart and
basis of the shop committee movement
in the unorganized as we'll as organ
lied industries. Shop nuclei and shop
committees go hand in hand, one with
out the other is unthinkable There
fore, the problem of shop committees
hinges upon the reorganization of the
party on the basis of shop nuclei.
1t is neither necessary nor advis-
able to go into details as to how the
shop committee machinery should be
linked up or function. Suffice it to
say at this time that it is practically
the same problem as the one to be
solved by the shop nuclei, which win
be the basis and parallel to it. The
form of organization will have to be
adjusted in each case to the peculiar
tiles Of the industry and methods of
production, but in all industries, in
GLIDING the building trades as we'll as
railroads, the shop committee system
can be applied effectively. Most of
the committees, especially in the I'M
organized industries must in the
preparatory stages of their activity do
their work semi-secretly until the
situation is ripe in each instance
either for strikes, organization cam
paigns, etc.
For the needle trades Industry,
where our movement at present is
infected by puny local union politics
ad nauseum, the shop committee
movement will revive and regain its
old militancy as soon as the party
gets into action along these lines.
Let me say in conclusion, that shop
committees are the road to the organi-
cation of the unorganized, the most
effective weapon against the bureau
cracy-it marks the transition from
policy of propaganda to one Of action.
1t is amalgamation from the bottom.
It is the weapon for direct action,
class struggle, and victory. That's the
meaning Of shop committees.
When Won hIIv oaf IN ga ~