The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-02-01
lContinued from Page D

! imam LnOSS Ol CotiS IeaSAhCAA anu oSAA~
tors---to finance increases in salaries
from $4,000 to 10000 in the case Of
| President Lewis and propOrtionate in
creases for all the courtiers OF the
royal house.
G. The former friendly attitude to-
the question OF recognition OF the
Soviet Union, expressed at previous
conventions when some remnants Of
rank and file democracy remained,
has been changed to an official ex-
preston OF complete hostility embod-
4 led in one Of the most vicious reso-
buttons on the subject ever put for
ward by trade union leadership.
Does all this mean that the MEM
! bership Of the United Mine Workers
OF America has become hopelessly re-
dictionary?
Quite the contrary.
These measures have been taken
nv an officialdom which has had con-
crete proof of the fact, in two ma
tional elections, that the membership
Is opposed to its policies. 1t knows
it rules, if not solely by methods that
would shame a west Virginia coal
operator, at least by virtue of these
methods coupled with the backward
character of strategically located
minority Of the membership.
! II hopes to continue to rule by max
ing any substantial rank and Tile eX-
! preston utterly impossible.
One OF two things, and ONLY one
Of these two things can occur:
l. The rank and file, rallied
around capable and courageous lead
ers and a progressive program, will
break thru the circle of official re-
action which surrounds it now, take
control o. the UMWA, organize the
non-union fields and at least restore
the union to its former strength and
character; or
+ >. The UMWA will disappear in
sofar as it will serve as a weapon OF
the coal miners Of this continent.
This does not mean that the coal
! barons, backed up by the govern
ment,. will destroy the union at once.
/ H. does not even mean that with the
/ expiration o. the contract on April
/ 81 there will be the open attack on
the union that has been launched in
West Virginia, Western Pennsyl-
vania, etc.
But it does mean, and the machine
program which reached its full frui-
ticn at the thirtieth convention points
with deadly accuracy to the only 9TH
er possible conclusion, that under the
Lewis leadership the UMWA has dis
calded the glorious traditions OF the
past and now appeals to the lords OF
coal as an organization with which
they can deal, thru 100 per cent
Americans, with full assurance that
it will not interfere with their prof
its.
THE UMWA no longer speaks in
i terms of class in it's preamble.
Under Lewis it is not to consider the
coal operators as enemies but as
partners in industry
Under the Lewis leadership the
/ UMWA which rescued hundreds of
thousands OF miners from serfdom is
to become tire sponsor of u system of
sserfdom more subtle and dangerous
than The cp4n oppression which pro-
duced Ludlow and the march of the
miners in West Virginia in 1922.
THE UMWA, at its thirtieth con-
l. vcntion, falls in line with the other
trade unions whose members are be-
ing led into the camp Of their class
enemies By an officialdom whose
utter subservience to American inn
perialism in all its phases leaves hon
est workers st less for words and
fills the mind Of communist with
, horror and apprehension.
!. But reaction creates its own rem
! edy. Capitalism is never satisfied
with half loaf or with anything less
than its full pound Of flesh.
Right in the convention at which
all vistages Of the pre-war revolu-
tionary movement were eliminated
from the precept and practice of the
United Mine Workers, there was in
evidence the forces which really rep
resent the interests of the miners.
They were weak, it is true. They viii
continue weak, in the sense Of having
sufficient power to pull the union
back from the precipice Of worker
employer cooperation before it has
been seriously damaged, for some
time to come.
ID Ut the gulf between officials and
- membership has been immeasur-
ably widened. II will continue TO
widen and before this convention is
over it's width will have increased un-
Ill the voices of the machine spokes-
men cannot be heard across the
chasm. The miners, then, will hear
only the voices Of the coal barons
cursng them TO their even hardei'