The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-08

MAINTAIN the organization.
hence, no struggle. For the class
war the leaders of the A. F. Of l..
have substituted worker-employer CO.
operation. LabOr's generals have
spiked the guns of labOr's army.
No Open Struggle.
This anti-working class, suicidal
doctrine is reflected as matter of
of course in the attitude of the A. F.
of L. to injunctions. Where the class
struggle is denied the strike loses its
potency, and the resistance to anti
strike injunctions is shorn of
strength and zeal. Despite the high
sounding resolutions adopted at its
conventions. the A. +. of L. has
shown, and shows today more than
ever, weak and ineffective front
in its policy against injunctions.
Being anti-proletarian to the core
and governed by capitalist ideas the
A. f. of L. leaders do not stir the
workers to open resentment against
their enemies. They do not call upon
them to resist with their united
strength the encroachments of the
! judicial octopus. No, that would be
unrespectable, revolutionary. In
stead, these leaders indulge in senh-
me: tai appeals to the capitalist law
makers and judges in the name of
equality. They stress the claim of
''our rights as American citizens,
and say not a word about our rights
as producers of Americas wealth. A
cringing, knee-bending policy has
taken the place of militant proletar-
ian resistance.
Recent Surrenders.
/ In recent years, especially, the A.
F. Of l.. leadership has affirmed by
a series Of very definite actions its
class-collaborationist and anti-strike
platform. BY endorsing the Balti-
more and Ohio plan it has openly
put its sanction on Company
Unions. By acclaiming the enact
mennt of the Watson-Parker law
which outlaws strikes on the rail
roads, it has accepted the principle
of compulsory arbitration. In pro-
noting labor banking, labor insur-
ance, and similar enterprises it has
sought to set up a trade-union capt.
talism with the vain hope to deprole-
tarianize. And in recommending at
its recent convention the reelection
OF Governor Smith, the man who
only a few weeks before, in the strike
of the New York Cloakmakers, had
earned for himself the title, "Injunc-
ton Az, the A. F. of L., in effect,
put its seal of approval on injunc-
tions.
What Must Be Done.
Workers must grasp the strike as
their indispensable, their most effec-
tive weapon. Their immediate pro-
gram must be to fight for the re-
peal of existing anti-strike legisla-
ton, especially, the Watson-Parker
railway law whose continued exis-
tence threatens to spread comulsory
arbitration to other industries. They
must fight for the curbing of the
equity powers of the courts. They
must fight for legislation eliminat-
ing injunctions. police, and soldiery
from strike situations.
But reliance on legislation is not
enough. Experience has taught the
workers that they must rely, first
and foremost, upon their organize
tional strength. Two sections of the
Clayton Act definitely exempt labor
from the restriction of the Sherman
Antitrust Law. Yet in many in
stances labor has been subjected To
oppressive court decisions in fragrant
violation Of this exemption. Trial by
jury granted by the Clayton Act has
repeatedly been denied to labor. In
direct contradiction to the letter and
spirit of the Clayton Act state and
federal judges have declared labor to
be property, have prohibited picketing,
have out-lawed sympathy strikes and,
in the case of the Arizona model law
have vetoed legislation which is iden-
teal with the pro-labor sections In
the Clayton act.
Smash lnJunctiOns.
The laws favoring labor can be
upheld only by the organizational
strength Of labor. The legal status
Of the strike will be achieved by the
same means that gave the trade
anionists their legal status--the in
domitable win of labor. Mass COLA
ton of injunctions will break injunc-
tions. Howatt's miners, Passaic, the
New York furriers, the New York
cloakmakers, have proved it. The
workers broke the legal ban on trade
unions by ignoring the legal ban. The
workers will break the injunctions
against strikes by striking against
the injunctions.
n-sI.- Wa.I..- n