The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-22
The A. F. of L. Leadership
and Injunctions
BY I. JEROME.

ssyWE HAVE come forward toward
W light and life through such
measures as the Clayton Law which
declared that the labor of a human
being is not commodity or article
of commerce. We have succeeded
in establishing a concept in law and
in administration that the welfare of
he workers is matter of paramount
interest"
In such glowing terms did Samuel
Gompers, President Of the American
Federation of Labor, jubilate upon
the passage of the Act which guar
anteed Labor for all times immunity
from injunetions.
Today, seventeen years after the
birth of the Clayton Act, we see an
annual convention of the mighty Am
erican Federation of Labor trans
formed into a panicky-stricken camp
surrounded by a legion of injunc-
tions. For even while the recent con
vention at Los Angeles was in SEES
sion, a federal judge at Pittsburgh
handed down an injunction against
the United Mine Workers of America
which is the most deadly of the host
of injunctions that have come before
WHAT has happened? Have the
" lawgivers stricken the pro-labor
measure from the statute books
Have the courts declared the Clayton
Act unconstitutional? Or did the
President of the American Fedora
ton of Labor perhaps misread the
letter of the law?
No-to all these doubtings! In I'M
mistakable language, the Clayton
Act still stands bold for all to see
and hail.
Verify "the Magma Charta of Am
erican Labor" "Labor's Bill of
Rights!" "The masterpiece of the A.
F. of L., and the browning glory of
its PRESIDENT"
Why then are injunctions still
handed down against the workers?
Why are they on the increase in
number and extent in every corner
of the land? Why do they grow more
sinister and insolent from day to
day?
There is only one answer: The
weak and ineffective front presented
by the A. F. of L. leadership in the
workers struggle against injunctions
is responsible for the present state
of affairs.
The injunction is the capitalists
sword drawn against the workers
sword-the strike. What shall be said
of the soldier who stands with a
scabbard against the drawn blade of
his foe? Yet this is and has always
been the stand of the A. F. of L. Off
Gals in the fight against injunctions.
And, lest one might charge these lab
or generals with malice or even sus-
picion against the judges by whose
hands Labor has been bound and
gagged with injunctions, the official
organ of the A. F. of L. leaves no
grounds for doubt:
"We regard the members of the
supreme bench as upright and incor-
ruptible. We believe that in any de-
cision handed down each Judge hon
estly and conscientiously gives the
opinion which he believes to be cor
rect. We do not agree with those
who charge the court with being in
fluenced by sinister motives or under
the domination of corporate influ-
ence. :" (American Federationist,
March, 19O8).
And this month after the infam-
Gus Danbury Hatters' decision! This
was the answer of the A. F. of L.
officialdom to one of the direst blows
hit at organized labor, to one of the
most insulting, as we'll as injurious,
of all anti-labor injunctions. At a
time when all the workers were
aflame with indignation, when Cap
ital's throttling hand was clearly
seen in the decision, the ''leaders" of
Labor endeavored to instil into the
indignant hearts of the workers faith
in the honesty and conscientiousness
Of the judges. What inspiration to
struggle can the workers draw from
such leaders? And what are such
declarations but a carte blanche to
injunction judges.
THAT this and similar actions are
in no wise an alteration from the