The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-19

mittee IN the war on the Communists
and the left wing needle trades union
lists, resulting in the public repudia-
ton Of a call for assistance from this
committee on the part Of the New
York Central Labor Council, (Altho
inner Tammany Hall politics played
it's part) has forced officialdom to
pretend that it wants to stop short of
complete destruction of these unions
by conciliatory gestures made &C.
casionally.
Effects of Offensive.
( The tension in the ranks of the
upper circles of labor officialdom
can be sensed rather than detailed in
black and white. That there is, as a
result of the pressure of the capitalist
offensive, a differentiation process
taking place among the union mem
bership can not be denied.
/ Those workers who confront power
full capitalists in basic industry must
of necessity be more sympathetic to
a more militant program than are
the organized workers in sheltered oc-
equations, unions which enjoy a
privileged position in industry-due
to drastic apprenticeship systems,
monopoly position of the bosses MAX
ing for a profit rate much higher
than the average, etc.
The United Mine Workers of
America, in spite of the policy of
open surrender preached by their
leaders, and the five-year drive
against the militant elements in the
union, are today on strike The
miners work in basic industry
where hazards are high and their at
titude toward the coal barons and the
government is totally different to
that of Matthew VOLTS little, bust
ness-like and privileged union of
photographers.
( We repeat that the struggle in the
ranks of the official labor leadership,
such as it is, revolves around the
selection of the best method of serv-
ing American imperialism-open re-
action in cooperation with the bosses
or the combination of this policy with
the tactic of making gestures from
time to time which have the posi-
bility of fooling considerable Sec
ton of the labor movement, for
time, into believing that the leader
ship is trying as best it can to put
up real fight.
The Coming Convention.
/ The forty-siXth annual convention
of the American Federation of Labor
goes into session in Los Angeles,
California, on the Pacific coast
scant six weeks after the murder of
Sacco and Vanzetti-in Massachu-
sets, on the Atlantic coast.
California is the state that i'm
prisoned Tom Mooney, and holds this
member of the iron-molders union,
railroaded almost to the gallows in
one of the historic American frame
ups, in Jail for eleven long years for
the crime of trying to organize the
traction workers of the United Rail-
ways in San Francisco.
! Elementary loyalty to labor would
have dictated the change of the con-
vention city from Los Angeles to
Boston where the whole question of
political prisoners could have been
raised in the most powerful way in
connection with the organization of
the unorganMed.
Here we have the real measure of
the caliber of the official leadership
of the American labor movement.
The convention is only two weeks
away. In spite of the virtual i'm
4 possibility under existing conditions
of rank and file spokesman being
elected as delegates to the convention
in any numbers, it nevertheless will
be necessary for officialdom, in view
OF the increasing pressure of the capt.
talists on the labor movement, to
present some sort of program, some
perspective and some record of eff
forts made in behalf Of the member
ship
There can be no question that it
has been with an eye upon the COM
ing convention, and with distinct
recollection Of the sorry figure it cut
under the lash of the Detroit open
Shoppers that labor officialdom has
been making some Of the gestures
listed previously.
There is the further reason that
next year comes the presidential cam
paign and it is necessary that the
holders of the purse strings of the
capitalist parties be duly impressed
with the Importance of labor official
dom.
But more Immediately important is
the fact that labor officialdom, faced
with political defeat by the repudia-
ton of its worker-employer coopera-
ton policy by capitalists who believe
the unions weakened enough to de-
feat easily with the shaky character
Of trade union capitalism shown by
the collapse of the Locomotive
Engineers ventures, is forced to cast
round for some method of check
ing the development of a powerful
militant movement in which the Com
munists and the organized left wing
will WELD tremendous influence.
hot l.