The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-01-31
YEAR OF The LEFT WING AMONG
FIFTH avenue NEEDLE WORKERS

IVEEiDEE w 0AINkHEJ
The strike call went out and the
response Of the dressmokers, as VS.!
expected, was very poor. The Fifth
Avenue Association got busy and the
district was flooded with police out
side and inside the building, indus
trial squad, private police and detec-
tives. The very first days we had
dozens of arrests in a strike of only
1000 workers. The special picket
committee Of about 80 was under
great handicap as its visiting COM
rlittees appearing in the strike dis
trict found themselves Swallowed.
Nevertheless they visited about 60
shops within ten days and were eff
fective in about %.
Picketing with signs was an inno-
walton and the employers tried hard
to prevent it. The picket line was
! quite aggressive in the first dash and
the whole glamor Of publicity, strike
atmosphere, pickets, etc, was very
effective in keeping the rich, chart
table ladies away from their shopping
1 pleasures as they do not like to be
annoyed by the open physical display
I of the class struggle
Meanwhile the right wing in the
union that had been swept off its
feet by these rapid developments, be-
gan to raise its head again. The
] right wing would surely play a dan
gerous game.
I The treasury Of the union was low,
so the conference committee made a
/ settlement, and a good one. A 40
! hour week "a la furriers) as against
"A hours before, So So increase in
wages for everybody that went on
strickland we placed in union shops
i most Of the dressmakers in whose
shops we had lost. AS a result Of
the drive we won 300 new members,
mostly dressmakers. or a 800 in
crease in membership
We won this in honest struggle
without selling out the exploited cos
tune dressmakers, and we won more
than the right wingers could when
\ previously, with their "sell-out pol
icy, under more favorable circum
stances, they got only an increase in
wages. The strike committee, includ
ing the right wingers, unanimously
accepted the settlement.
The whole strike and organization
campaign cost about $4,000. Still,
the right wingers now clamor that
we spent too much money, that the
strike was a failure because we did
not get forty weeks time guarantee,
that we hired Communist gangsters,
etc. By the latter they mean eight
special pickets, militants who were
taken from their shops downtown at
the wages they earn because we
could not recruit such elements from
among the elderly tailors. These very
| right wingers who in our last stop
page had professional gangsters
whom they paid the usual high prices
and who took money from both sides,
now pretend to be indignant at our
getting honest, able-bodied radical
!. workers on the picket line. But this
is only camouflage.
i The fact is that the bosses have
somewhat recuperated from the shock
of our drive; they are terrorizing the
tailors thru the right wing, saying
that if they do not GUST the left wing
leadership and get an administration
that will behave and abstain from or
ganizing the dressmakers, they will
get rid of the tailors altogether.
Behind these silly accusations are
real selfish, stupid craft interests and
the "old timers" listen. Theirs is not
the path of struggle, better less at
some one else's expense BY the old
fake methods than honest struggle
for the workers interests irrespee-
tive of craft The method is to sac
rifice the semi-skilled and unskilled
for temporary, even ilmsory privi-
leges to the skilled.
We are on the eve Of new cleo
tions in Local 3S. The selfish craft
interests of our "old timers" are
worked up to a pitch. The general
situation in the ILGWU is favorable
for our "old timers" The bosses in
terests and those of the right wing
ers in the local and in the interna-
tional coincide. The left wing has a
record of accomplishment. It in
creased the /. membership, got i'm
proved conditions, and strengthened
the union. Can the old timers fool
the members and overcome the effect
Of our successful policy and put the
union back to sleep for years? We
don't think so.