The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-08-06

ASIDE from the great attempt in the steel indus
"A try led by William e. Foster very little has been
done in the post war years to organize the enor-
masses of unorganized workers in the U. s. A.
In fact the number of organized workers has con-
siderably decreased since the and there now
less members within the folds of organized labor
than before the war.
The crisis the workers are going thru in the coal
and garment industries is likely to reduce the
Der of organized good deal more It is too early
to predict the outcome of the renewed open shop
onslaught, of which there are many indications of
the 1920-1923 type, upon organized labor. We can
safely say however, that considering the present
strength of the employers and the character of the
A. F. of L. leadership, the effect will be quite dis
astrous and viii cut down considerably even of la
boris present strength All of which forces the ques
ton of organizing the unorganized, the first
der Of business before the miitants throughout the
country.
1t must be clear to every that it is not any
more matter of passing resolutions to put labor
organizations record, for there is hardly any or
ganzation that has not passed such resolutions, or
can be made to do it again at each convention
Yet we know that during this present prosperity
period practically nothing done Instead OF or
ganzing the unorganized the union treasures have
been invested in labor banking and all sorts of IL
nancia ventures in exploitation of industry and fl
nancing best described in what is known as labor
capitalism and class collaboration.
It would be mistake to assume that the reason
the trade union bureaucracy does not move forward
on the organization of the unorganized is simply
because they don't want to, that the union treas
uries have been frozen up in investments. The real
cause is that the trusts and capitalist combinations
have become altogether too strong to be fought by
the present type of leadership. They are too capital
stically sef-seeking and too cowardly to face the
problem and hence all the resolutions remain dead
letter
The first step in organizing the unorganzed in
modern American industry would be amagamaton,
Labor Party, simultaneous with the building up of
big consumers cooperative movements. In brief,
utilization of all the forces and methods of modern
struggle Of labor that go with highly centralized
and efficient modern capitalism. The leadership OF
the American trade unions is as far removed from
the above proposed methods are from feudal-
ISM 1t prefers to let the unions drift to disaster
on the line of least resistance seh-aggrandisement
and personal profit instead of adopting modern pro-
gressive policies.
When we look closely into the matter of the few
minor organization campaigns that have been carried
on by the bureaucracy we find that in most in
stances this fitted in with the competition politics OF
the employers and the class collaboration policy OF
the bureaucracy. The large bosses with whom the
trade union bureaucracy is in many instances asso-
ciated using the union to drive smaller competitors
out of business and sometimes even playing the
game of big capitalist politicians to bring pressure
against their political adversaries, etc.
1t must be frankly stated that with modern