The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-05-24
Signs Of ReUOlt in the Ranks of the
Labor AristocrGcy


ton while his union Is in convention IN Cleveland
Sheppard, head of the Railway Conductors, attacks
the Communists and the left wing in a public
meeting and his union sewers all connection Will
the LaFollette third party movement at It's Min
neapolis convention and sinks back into tn,
quagmire of the old reward friends and punisl
enemies" policy.
The two incidents Illustrate reactionary trenC
of the most dangerous characteristic, the willing
ness to surrender the weapon 70 the strike second
to abandon even the vague and confused form o.
independent, political action represented by tn,
LaFollette third party movement in favor Of activ,
participation in the capitalist parties.
AS an explanation Of this trend In the American
labor movement, trend which the last election
campaign interrupted temporarily, and which finds
additional expression in the launching Of banking
and insurance schemes on purely proftmakinG
basis by the union offcialdom, the mere pointing
out Of individual labor officials as traitors does
not suffice On the surface of American working
class political life these officials are only bubbles
We must look for the chemistry of social change
THAT agitates the mixture and forces these evil
smelling bubbles to the top.
We find the real explanation in the new statu,
of Americna capitalism as world power. Amer
capitalist world-a stream of gold flows ever out
ward to needy nations in the form Of loans and il
consequence new kind Of income, interest OF
foreign loans and investments, shows itself in tht
credit balance Of the ruling class.
Foreign Investments carry with them the dan
ger Of war. Defaulting debtors must be whipped
into line and encroachments on the fields of Amer
lean financial influence by other imperialist nations
must be fought
Modern warfare, successful modern warfare
and success lis the watchword of America-de
mands as its first requisite docile working class
For the great mass of the working class the ers
of Imperialism brings added hardships and in
crease the danger for the ruling class, of revolt
working class united in opposition to wars O
conquest and the cause of these wars is somethin.
that the rulers must find ways and means O
preventing,
With a tremendous surplus from foreign in
Testment, huge portion of it derived from thu
robbery of colonial workers and peasants who's
standard of living is much lower than that Of tn
American workers. the ruling class proceeds Il
! divide the labor movement by granting specia
fayors in the form of higher wages and BETTE
than average working conditions to certain STRAIT;
of the working class, particularly among the or
gained workers.
1t is not necessary even that the labor officials
be bribed outright altho for quick results in al
emergency, this is DONE 1t is sufficient that work
ers who occupy key positions in important in
dustries, notably transportation, be made to fee
that their interests lie with an imperiaIstic polio,
rather than in opposition to it. Right here w
find the moving factor in all the schemes for elias
collaboration including the Johnston "B. and O.
plan and the extension of it advocated by Lee
But the class conflict is not abolished simply be
cause a privileged section of the working elias
lines up with the imperialists. The conflict con
tnues and ravages even the highest strata of labor
Revolt develops even here. 1t is necessary there
fore to disembowel the unions of wellpaid work
ers and make of them an empty she'll They mus
be made an integral part of the capitalist organ
ization in order that organized action in time o
crisis becomes impossible Company unions tina
can control every action Of the workers are tn
only form of labor organization that imperialism
will tolerate and it is trying, thru the Johnstons
Lees and other less outspoken advocates, to trans
form the railway unions into outright adjuncts 0
its political power
We do not wish to give the impression that tn
Lees and Johnstons are consciously working Il
this end. This would be giving them credit for to-
much intelligence 1t is probable that they do no
even understand very well the real nature of tn
treacherous work they are doing. 1t is suficien
that they are middle class in outlook with all tn
seryility to the big bosses that all middle elias
elements manifest, willing to do anything that will
keep them wellfed and respectable.
But these procurers for American capitalism ar
not doing as well as might be expected by thos
who realize the lack of class consciousness amon
the American workers In Johnson's union a RAM
and file revolt has defeated him and in the cor