The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-28
The New Open Shop Drive


IN New York, the U. S. Supreme Court decision in
the stone cutters which tends to prohibit strikes
the latest decision by the court UNFOLDING the
antl-syndleallst laws as made in the Whitney case,
Wmch tends to outlaw the party, lockout of the
carpenters in Chicago, the imperiast drive to main
tain control of foreign markets and gain new ones
(Chna, Nicaragua, etc.)--what does it all mean?
Have these two (reaction at home Imperialism
abroad) any connection with each other? Are they
indissouble parts of the postwar mperiaistic era
OF American Capitalism? Industrialzation of the
South and West, the large numbers of child youth
and woman labor being indicted into industry the
replacement of skilled labor by semi-slilled and un
skilled, thru efficiency schemes sectonaizing new
machinery, the terrific drive to increase the out
put at reduced costs What has all this to do with the
postwar Imperialism of the U. S. A.?
The tremendous swing to the right of the A. r.
oil l.. bureaucracy the tremendous loss of member
ship of the A. +. of L., the agricultural crisis the
crisis in several big industries What has this to do
with American Imperialism?
The recuperation of European industry as a COM
petitor for the world markets. the industrial deyel-
opment OF semi-colonia and colonial nations and its
effects upon the American capitalist system and
imperalist rivaries?
Here are a few questions to be solved by us. What
the effects of American world Imperialism upon
the various sections of population workers. farmers
petty bourgeosie, middle class, independent manu-
facturerS industrial capital degree of justification
international monopoly, finance capital? Without a
correct answer to these questions we can have no
program, politically or industriay, we cannot see
clearly enough the present divisions amongst the
boulgeoise, we cannot formulate an agricultural
program. We are just cropping in the dark, on the
defensive, merely defending ourselves against blows
that come our way. Surely, not play lead
ing role in pointing the way and leading struggles
against American capitalism Thus far no such
analysis with specific American application has yet
been made by party. To speak of Imperialism
as Chinese or Nicaraguan proposition is the
popular way, is like seeing merely the surface
uestatlonS Of a profound transformation of the
tire system. It would be merely like seeing the adj
strokes of the oncoming open shop drive with
out understanding the why and wherefore of the
forces and conditions that produce it. 1t would be
like blaming it the eapricious greed and mischief
of individual capitalists in control of important in
dustries.
1t would be beyond the scope of these two ar
ticles$ to go beyond few indications Of what the
problem is and where it leads to. Surely the best
minds Of movement and all our resources must
be used to go into this in really thorogoing
Bourgeois propagandists and theoreticians have
been psychologizing the labor movement with the
contention that the American worker is enjoying
unexampled prosperity The social democrats have
picked it up and the miracle of high wages, short
hours, ETC., under capitalism, American Democracy
Brand" is being dangled before the eyes of the
"humble and meek all the world. Commits
sions official and unofficial coming to nvesti-
Rdte the OF our ptOieIdllan prosperity I'M
der capitalism. Even many Left Wingers, yes even
Communists have been caught by this contagious
propaganda. 1t reminds one of Woodrow Wilson's
propaganda that carried Social-Democrats
off their feet. All the theories Of the labor
ment moving to the right, the abandonment of mil
itant slogans, the for abandoning class strug-
gle policies, working with the bureaucracy within
the orbit of class collaboration, all the class COLA
boration tendencies and theories be excused on
that basis.
The commissions that come to investigate our
proletaran prosperity in the Z. S. A. never went
to the Massachusetts and Connecticut textile towns,
to the coal towns in the bitumnous fields down the
South and West with their industries and cheap
labor into the needle and shoe industries in the East
They never examined how many skilled mechanics
have been replaced by cheaper semi-skiiled and
skilled labor and machinery. They never looked into
the earnings Of our unorganized semi-skled and
unskiled in the great industries They looked
into the fact that the surface prosperity Of many
proletarian families is there only because the chill
dren, women and youngsters now in the factory,
mill, store mne thus increasing the total income