The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-24

~, MARCH "a, 1927
Union--a steady if not a brilliant
campaigner against the "reds"-who
managed to steal from the union, by
a combination of blackmail and for
gerry, approximately $4,000.
The second case is that of Local
Union Number Of the International
Brotherhood Of Electrical Workers,
one of the largest locals of the union,
whose officials have been shown to
have been on the payroll Of the con-
tractors and to have systematically
blackmailed and robbed members and
prospective members of the union for
years.
MOT of major Importance when taken
~ one by one but of sinister con-
sistency by reason Of their cumulative
effect when taken together these re-
cent instances of corruption spring
from a common and poisoned source.
The individuals involved, with some
minor exceptions, are feIvid opponents
Of 100 per cent American trade union
ism and vie with one another in de-
nouncing, prosecuting and expelling
Communist and left wing workers.
THERE is the further fact that Vice
President Matthew Woll of the
American Federation of Labor is now
acting president of the Civic Fedora
ton of Labor and that he is also ac-
tive in the caucus which the Knights
of Columbus maintains inside of the
trade unions. His fanatical energy in
organizing gangsters, police and the
right wing officials against the Jewish
workers in the needle trades lends
color to the belief that here is a joint
agent of the employing class and
feudal reaction represented by the
Roman catholic hierarchy.
Vol personally symbolizes the
rampant corruption and reaction in
the upper levels of the American labor
movement.
IN period like this when the right
wing officials are maintaining the
closest relations with the various
agencies of the government and the
capitalists, when American imperial
ism is willing to pay high price for
political support of or even neutrality
towards it's financial and military adj
ventures in Latin-America and the
Far East, when it is only too willing
to encourage and finance persecution
and expulsion campaigns against that
section of the labor movement from
which the opposition to its plans
comes, it is inevitable that there
should be Shiny trails leading from
high offices of trade unions to the
counting houses and pay offices of
the American capitalist class.
Conviction of the utter righteous
ness Of capitalism does not account
for such open betrayals of the work
ing class as the recent endorsement
of Citizens Military Training Camps
Faith in a holy cause does not ex-
plain the ardor with which Woll and
others enlist detectives and gangsters
against militant workers.
There is something in all this that
smacks of the industrious manner in
which the industrial squad of the New
York police department goes forth to
beat up and Jail workers after they
have collected theiF daily "bit" from
bosses against whom there is strike
WE are convinced that there is
" gigantic labor scandal looming up.
The materials are there for it. Just
when it will break depends in a large
measure upon the pressure which the
rank and file under left wing leader
ship brings upon trade union official
dom.
As this pressure increases land it
will increase as the trade union men,
bership is alienated more and more
by the stoolpigeon tactics of the Of
ficialdom) there will be riffs and
rents in what appears now to be a
solid bloc of reaction.
Some one of these days a disgrun-
tied pal, an insufficiently bribed I'M
derling, a revengeful public official
or some publicity-seeking politician
is going to spill the beans.
In the meantime we are doing a
little investigating ourselves in the in
terest of the labor movement and hope
to have something of interest to re-
port in the not distant future.
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WORE