The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-11-19

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workers and the union, the right of
discharge. This treachery of the right
wing is to be condemned most severely
and is responsible for the prolonged
and bitter struggle. The left wing and
! the militancy of the workers is not to
blame.
The Times and the right wing would
like to create the impression that the
strike ended in total defeat for the
workers. In spite of the fact that the
union had to overcome great Difficult
ties, such as the jobber difficulty, the
scabbing situation due to the develop
ment of the out-of-town markets, the
open protection of scabbing by the
right wing machine, the opposition of
Governor Smith and his compulsory
arbitration proposals, the injunctions,
the wholesale arrests coupled with I'M
precented police violence and brutal
ity, and the open and deliberate hold
ing up of relief by the right wing
leaders in other unions, 1t neverthe-
less was able to register victory for
the workers. Even the retreat on the
question of 1919 reorganization was
made only after the union had forced
the manufacturers to recede from
their original position by granting the
union the right to review discharges
and guaranteeing the workers 80
weeks employment during the year.
The demands won by the workers was
a 42-hour 5-day week for 18 months,
to be followed by 40-hour week, thus
establishing the 40-hour 5-day week
in the industry, limitation of contract
ors, a better arrangement providing
union supervision of the labor bureau
that provides workers to the manufac-
turers, and an increase in wages much
above that granted by the governors
commission. These are notable
achievements, and their winning can
only be attributed to the militancy,
courage and fighting spirit of the
workers. Without a struggle, the
bosses could never have been forced
to grant them. The left wing deserves
credit that it had that courage to enter
the struggle in spite of the formidable
opposition of the bosses, aided by
the capitalist state and the criminal
strike-breaking activities of the right
wing.
When the New York Times speaks
about unreasonableness of the strike,
that it was against the interests of
the workers because it was directed
against the inside manufacturers, who
the Times wants us to believe are
friendly to labor, one is reminded of
the famous cartoons in the daily CAPT
talist press captioned bug House Fa-
bles." The inside manufacturers are
the richest factors in the ladies' gar
ment industry. BY the exploitation OF
the workers they have become exceed
ingly wealthy. They are not one whit
concerned about the. welfare of the
workers. To them, like all the other
factors in the trade, profits are the
/ first consideration. The record of
these manufacturers is stubborn and
bitter opposition to the union. Their
workers have not shared in the enor-
nous prosperity they have enjoyed.
In the negotiations with the union
they made demands upon the union for
speeding up, for less union control,
and, in the main, for further impov-
erishing the workers and aggravating
their exploitation. Tho employment
in some, not all, of the inside shops
may be slightly better than in the con-
tractors shops, the very fact that they
opposed bitterly time guarantee indi-
Gates that they realize that, as bosses,
they have everything to gain by main
tanning in the industry system of
insecurity of employment. The left
wing in raising the issue Of time-guar-
anteed employment has taken steps
to remedy a condition in the garment
industry that is responsible for short
periods of feverish employment and
then prolonged periods of unemploy-
ment, causing great misery and suf-
fering among the garment workers.
The inside manufacturers are bosses
and not lily white angels. Like shy
locks, regardless of consequences,
they are interested only in extracting
their pound of flesh from the workers.
To cooperate with them would only
result in selling the interests of the
workers for a mess OF pottage.
The New York Times does not stop
here. 1t now takes up the argument
repeated time and again by the right
wing during the course of the strike.
1t is the same argument raised by the
Jewish Daily Forward. that the left
wing calls futile strikes only for polit-
ical purposes. The Times insinuates
that the reason behind the strike may
have been union politics involving con-
troll by the radical elements. In the
first place, the New York Cloakmak-
ers' Union was in the hands of the left
wing radical elements when the strike
was called. 1t was, the conservative
right wing reactionary forces that, for
political purposes, did everything 10