The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-06-08
By WILLIAM F. DUNE
Article w.

Article ~.
THE question may be asked: Does
the British ruling class want to
smash the unions completely, to wipe
them out of existence now ?"
To this question we can answer
that the tories intend to turn the
unions into instruments of imperial
list government but in answering it
we can and must make Q few COM
PARSONS and draw a few lessons for
ourselves. We have here in America
in an embryoric f:.lm as compared
With the saarp nationwide struggle
in Great Britain, las was remarked
at The fsgiaaiyg Of thase articles)
like offensive against the trade
un(cas.
Two forms Of Gripping the unions
mere are to be noted:
u Simple "w5rker-employer coon
eyst!oa' in which the unions abandon
s'sa*e policy and eEter into eff
c'aacy agreements with the capital
ists.
p The Watsca-P Parker railway act
by which the government becomes
openly an instrument for enforcing
the policy of worker-employer cooper
ation-partial "govcrnmentalization"
Of the unions.
As in other countries the measures
taken here by the official leadership
to emasculate the unions was preced-
ed by wave of strikes and left wing
agitation and organization. 1t is
enough to mention here the nation
wide strikes of the coal miners and
railway shopmen, the rise of the left
wing in these organizations in 1922
%, the labor party movement, the de-
velopment of a powerful Communist
and left wing bloc in the needle
trades and to recall that the cam
paign for efficiency unionism and the
offensive against the left wing goes
hand in hand, to establish the connec-
ton between these various pheno-
mena.
ONCE as in other countries the Of
y fetal leadership has quit fighting
for the interests of the workers, and
since the program of the left wing
represents both the immediate and
class needs of the trade unions and
the masses, the drive against the
unions takes the form of direct strug-
gle against the Communists and the
left wing on the part Of the govern
ment, the capitalists and the official
labor leadership.
In Italy the rise Of fascism came
after powerful revolutionary manifes-
tations had shattered the structure of
capitalist democracy"
IN France the bill militarizing the
population sponsored by Paul Bon
cour, right wing socialist and sup
ported by all parties of the left wing
with the exception Of the Commun-
lists who conducted a campaign
against it, the falling of the most
prominent Communist and militant
trade union leaders now being carried
out, has come after some important
Communist parliamentary victories
and a strong campaign against
French imperialist policy.
We have already seen that in Great
Britain the Trade Union mill follows
great swing Of the masses to the
left.
The first phase of the process of
decentralization" placing the chief
burden of rebuilding and maintaining
capitalism on the workingclass and
the lower sections of the middle
class--which began with the estab-
lishment of the Dawes Plan, has
about run its course.
1t has not solved the important
questions of markets and sources of
raw materials-it has not been able
to abolish the fierce struggle for
f:slds in which to dispose of surplus
Commodities.
Neither has it toned down class
contradictions to any marked degree
Legislation like the British Trade
bill and the recent Italian Fascist
Trade Union bill recognize this latter
fact by setting up new machinery for
suppression of the ever sharpening
class conflicts.
IN the United States the rulingclass
meets increasingly keen competition
in foreign markets (aitho this is not
Of major proportions as yeti and it
knows that the reduction Of the liv-
ing standards of the European work
ers which will follow the ertraordin-
airy measures taken by the rulers of
Great Britain and the continental
countries will intensity this COMPETE
ton.
The official labor leadership in It's
drive on the left wing is expressing
its own fears and serving very well
the future interests Of American inn
perialism.
their ends by subterranean dipl
other and more devastating war