The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-04-02

, nous miners jointly with the anthra-
cite miners in 1925 and thus put a
stop to the violation of the Jackson
vile scale. He made no preparation
for the present strike; carried on no
preliminary organizational work; and
made no stimulation of the union for
the struggle; and when the strike
took place he did nothing to draw the
unorganized into the fight. For six
months after the strike began no or
gained relief was given the miners;
militancy was Systematically sup
pressed; no mass picketing; no mass
violation of injunctions was engaged
in. While the miners starved, he and
his cr0nies drew their fat salaries.
They directed the miners to place
their hopes not in an aggressive fight
but in futile appeals to COOLIDGE,
empty senate Investigations, etc.
While Lewis was thus weakening
the miners union with his criminally
wrong policies, the employers were
constantly growing more powerful
The spread of non-union territory, the
consultations of the coal operators
themselves, the general strength of
other great industrial corporations
with coal-mining departments, the in
crease in the open-shop militancy
among employers generally: all con-
tributed towards increasing the pow
er of the employers, while the
strength of the union diminished.
Tho ,.acv,1k l,,r b,,o,-
bring the United Mine Workers of
America to the greatest crisis in its
history. The organization is now in
very real danger of being destroyed
altogether.
First Strategy of the Opposition.
Two years ago the left wing, per-
ceiving the increasingly dangerous
position of the miners organization,
raised the slogan of "Save the
Union" Forming united front with
the progressives on the basis of a
minimum program including the Or
ganization of the Unorganized, the
Formation Of Labor Party, a Ma
tional Agreement, Hour Day and
5 Day Week for all Coal Miners, Ma
tionalizing of the Mines, etc, the left
wing embarked upon an intensive
struggle against Lewis. This strug-
gle first took the forms Of an cleo
ton campaign with the progressiyes
putting up a ticket against the Lewis
machine, a campaign for delegates to
the national convention and for the
organization of the unorganized min
ers in preparation for the approach
ing bituminous strike.
These movements brought forth
afresh the corruption and ruthless
ness of the Lewis administration.
Lewis brazenly stole the election.
packed the convention, and resisted
every proposal for the launching of
a campaign to organize the morgan
lied districts. The defeat of the OBJ
position resulted in spread Of pes
slmism and dual-union spirit among
the miners. A conclusion quite gen
orally reached, full of great impor-
tance for the future, was that it was
hopeless to try to revive the u. M.
w. A. through the democratic chan
nels of the union.
The Second Stage
The second general stage of the OPP
position strategy began about three
months ago by the holding of an open
conference of the opposition in Pitts
burgh and the definite formation Of
the National Save the Union Com
mittee, Of which John Brophy is
chairman and Pat Toohey is secre-
tary. This is based upon an open
struggle against the Lewis machine
to force it out of control of the union
and thus bring about, through the in
strumentality Of the left wing and
progressives, the adoption of the pol
icy necessary to save the organlza-