The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-01-03

SnOp, one union the mlllJdnJS Will
fight for the introduction of the shop
delegate system.
What is the Shop Delegates System?
1.-THE shop delegate system will do
away gradually with the craft local
as the basic unit of organization and
substitute in it's stead the shop. The
workers in the shop being then the
basic unit of the organization of the
union will then take up all matters
lar shop meetings, and thru their dele
gates to the shop delegates council
will be able to bring their wishes
directly to the assembled delegates of
all the other shops in the trade. The
shop delegates council elected on a
proportional basis representing all the
workers in the shops of that trade
will have full power over all questions
of the trade and the management of
all union affairs in the trade, acting
for all the workers in the trade. The
workers in the shops thru their dele
gates will have the possibility to di-
rectly influence and to be represented
in this important union body, instead
as now being forced to accept the
rulings of unrepresentative and often
manipulated joint boards which they
have no means to influence nor to par
ticipate in its deliberations. The
executive board and it's officers elect
ed by the shop delegates council will
run the machinery of the union, re-
ceiving dues, complaints, handle bust
ness agents, ETC., under the direct
supervision Of the shop delegates
council.
Delegates to national conventions
of the unions will be elected on a
proportional basis by delegates from
the shops elected for that purpose,
and converting in city convention
of a trade. This simple machinery
will not only arouse the interest of
the thousands of workers in union
affairs but will enable the workers to
exert greater and a more direct con-
troll over the affairs of the union. 1t
is reform that will invigorate our
unions and make them more efficient
bodies in dealing with the problems
faced by the workers in the shops"
We in the needle trades perceived
even then that were we placed to-
morrow into complete control of the
bureaucratic apparatus of the unions
as constituted, the first thing we
would have to do is to bring about
amalgamation at the bottom, in the
shops, thru shop committees, and thru
them to abolish bureaucratic machin-
cry completely and create one from
the bottom up that is fit for the mod
ern struggle in modern industry. If
amaIgamation from the top would be
effected tomorrow with the present
bureaucratic apparatus remaining at
the bottom, it would be structure
built upon sand. The machinery of
the labor lieutenants of capitalism con-
ceived by the needs of the past, main
tanned for the purpose of choking the
lighting spirit, Of putting damper on
the class struggle, Of taking and
manipulating the masses much the
same as other bourgeois democratic"
methods, cannot serve the purpose of
militant struggle against exploitation.
The shop delegate system, as above
indicated, proposes method of shop
organization by each craft or division
of factory proportionately electing
its representatives to committee of
the shop factory, shop committee,
Betriebsrate, to represent the workers
in all affairs in the shop, as well as in
the general shop delegate body con-
trolling the union (shop delegates
counciD. 1t proposes to substitute
completely the present bureaucratic
apparatus of union management and
control, which so wonderfully serves
the purposes Of the bourgeois union
h,,raornroory o.I -xrl,soI, ...t.er-