The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-24

of the determination of the trade union bureaucrats
to stop delegates being sent at all, proves how
deeply the revolutionary principles of the Minority
Movement have penetrated the masses. It is true
that the representation less than the last annual
conference held last August during the miners lock-
out and after the great betrayal of the General
Strike, when 800 delegates representing 957,-
900 workers were present There factors, how
ever which offset in Importance the decreased dele
cation.
In view Of the determined opposition of nearly
every national trade union official this conference
represents the minimum of solid and reliable left
bloc within the British trade union movement 1t
is also safe to say that the bloc is much stronger and
larger when consider the crises within the mining
metal and steel industries and the poverty within
the local trade union branches, which have made it
financially impossible for delegates to be sent from
the provinces to London
A quotation from the Executive Committees re-
port shows the development in membership and
influence:
1.-The stronger we grow the more severe the at
tack made upon u.s. Many trade union executives
forbid their branches to send delegates to our con-
ferences. Others, like the National Union of Cen
eral and Municipal Workers have definitely sus-
pended both branches and officials for having dared
to attend Minority Movement conferences. The N
U. G. NJ. w. being led by democrats like Mr. Thomas
and Mr.. Clynes, has actually issued a document
which all candidates for official positions must sign
certifying amongst other things that they are not
members of the M. NJ and do not believe in its
policy.
yet reviewing the position whole, we can
record in spite of the above facts an increased mem
bership and vastly increased influence compared
with what we had last year."
The Executive Committees report reviewing the
general attack upon the Trade Union and Labor
movement can be divided into two parts The first
shows that the Trade Union and Trade Dispute Act,
the Poor Law Reform Bill, the Blanesburgh Report,
to which could be added the proposals to reform"
the House of Lords make impossible any serious
CONSTITUTIONAL change or attack upon British capi-
tasm as the abor Party so ignqminiously proposes.
The second part correctly points out that the war
on China and the preparations for war upon and
the attempted enlightenment of the U. S. S. r. are
both parts of the same struggle of the British
ployers and their tory government against the work
ers of the British Isles and the colonies.
The first series of acts are intended to: (a)
make the trade unions impotent in struggle; (b)
reduce wages and lengthen hours by giving the tory
government power to remove constitutionay elected
workers representatives to prevent them from CIV
ing adequate relief to the poor to extent which
would result in decreased competition for jobs and
(c) reduce unemployment insurance benefits of single
men and make heavy reduction for and
the YOUTH in order to further intensity the existing
poverty and competition, to lower prevailing trade
union rates. and to force the youth into the army
to emigrate to the colonies.
The conference endorsed the view that the British
imperiasts would attempt to crush every strike or
rising of colonial workers they are now doing
III China, and they desire to do in the u S. S. r.
because of the proetarian control in the Soviet
Union which is an inspiration to the working class
of the whole world.
To meet the certain attack made inevitable by the
further decline of British capitalism the conference
adopted fighting resolution as lead to the Edin-
burgh Trade Union Congress which had thesis
attached explaining this decline The thesis among
other phases, shows decline in the total produc-
tive industries "from 1913 level (100) to only 655
per cent in 1926 with corresponding decline in the
volume of trade In the normal year of 1925 the
total production only so per cent of the total
of 1879" 1t shows that the United States is
gradually invading the foreign and colonial markets
of Britain
In view of the continued preparations of the en-
ployers and the Baldwin government, the conference
demanded that the Edinburgh Trade Union Congress-
to be held next week take definite action: (1) to
organize the workers 100 per cent; (2) to form
shop committees in accordance with the resolution
passed at Scarborough (3) to reorganze the Trades
Councils into all-ncusye Local Trades and ahor