The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-01-19
RACE PREJUDICE
BOSSES WEAPON
TO DIVIDE LABOR
Nationality Also Used to
Split Workers
CONTINUED from page u

worker, whom he thinks is trying to
take away his job. The white worker
is also afraid to organize making the
very same excuse that the Negro
worker does.
The bosses in the various depart
ments at Armours are white. They
ride" the Negro workers as much as
possible. This riding of the Negro
worker has brot forth many spurts
Of revolt on the killing and other
floors.
In one department the boss had
been abusing the Negro workers as
much as he possibly could. Every
time that he gave orders to a Negro
worker he would do so in the vilest
Of language.
AS a protest against this behavior
Of the boss, one day the Negro work
ers stopped the chain and refused to
work on the hogs that were being sent
thru. 1t was their protest against tn.
vile and inhuman treatment that the
boss was subjecting them to.
Shortly after this squirt of revolt.
the boss approached one of the Negro
workers and tried to show his "su-
periority" by calling the worker a
number of names that reflected on
this workers parentage. The worker
enraged by the boss continual nag
ging and abuse, threw hook at the
boss. This hook grazed the boss
arm. The worker then threw sec
ond, this time hitting the boss on
the fleshy part of the arm. For the
rest of that day there was no more
abuse of the Negro workers. Then
the abuse was rained down upon the
white workers.
In departments where Lithuanians
and Poles work, spies able to speak
the languages Of these workers mix
among them and start arguments over
whether wilma is Lithuanian soil or
whether it should belong to Poland. A
number of times these arguments
have led to fist fights outside of the
yards" and have ended up in the
police court. In this manner these
two nationalities are played against
one another.
Since the Negro worker is becoming
more and more militant and is pro-
testing against rotten conditions in
the yards" the employment Office is
now hiring as many Mexicans as it
possibly can. Armour & company has
a special Mexican employment agent
who walks out into the crowd around
the employment Office, picks out the
Mexican workers and hires them. In
the plant anti-Mexican feeling has
been aroused among the workers and
the spies are able to so propaganda
the workers that the workers look
with distrust upon the Mexicans and
continually refer to them as "greas
ers."
The 100 per cent American" atti-
tude is encouraged in the yards" and
is used at every possible opportunity
against the foreign-born worker. The
company thru it's propaganda, paints
its bonus schemes, its profit sharing
we-are-partners idea," as American
methods. When foreign-born workers
argue against these schemes of the
packers and show the need for a
change in conditions and begin to talk
of unionization, many of the so-called
American" workers, who suffer from
the same evils that the foreign-born
workers do, tell the foreign-born
workers: eco on back to the old coun.
try if you don't like the way things
are run here"
Tho the meat packers play upon the
racial prejudices and national anita
gonism of the workers, woe unto the
worker, who dares allow his antagon-
ism or his prejudices to interfere with
the speed-up system and the steady
operation of the chains. If any vic
tim of company propaganda allows his
prejudices to interfere with the profit
making of the packers, he soon finds
himself out on the streets.
While at work they must bury these
antagonisms, but the moment they
cease working, the racial antagonisms
and the national hatreds can have full
sway.
One Of the Negro workers on the
hog killing floor at Armours tells Of
how the company arranges picnic or
outing during the summer, when all
Of the workers are invited to come
out. This gathering is supposed to
create spirit of good will" and CO.
operation" among the workers en-
ployed by Armour
But" said the Negro worker.
every time we go to one of those af.
fairs, we find ourselves Jim crowed'."
Regardless Of whether the workers
in the yards" are black, white, brown
or any other color, their grievances
against the packers are the same,
They all suffer under the speed.up.