The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-04-25
LEFT WING CLOAK
UNION DECLARES
CONVENTION FAKE
Calls for United, Rank
and File Union"

The following statement was issued
yesterday by, the left wing New York
Joint Board of the International
Ladies' Garment Workers Union on
the eve of the coming convention of
the union to be held in Boston, May 2.
It marks turning point in the bit
ter struggle conducted by the work
ers in the cloak and dress industry
for 18 months against the right wing
bureaucracy in control of the organi-
aation.
Statement of the Joint Board.
after seventeen months of most
shameful pogrom, which has prae-
tically destroyed the entire union, the
bureaucracy of the International
Ladies' Garment Workers Union is
going to Boston to carry through a
fake convention. The clique has ex-
pelled the locals and Joint Boards
representing about 80 per. cent Of the
membership, removed from the ballot
all candidates who were in the least
suspected of opposing the treaeher-
Gus policies of the officialdom. Com
pelled them to sign a 'yellow-dog
contract (the like of which cannot be
cqaalled even by the loyalty pledges
of the war hysteria period), and have
carried through fraudulent elections
oven in their own reorganized locals
Having carried through all these
treacherous maneuvers, the clique IS
now gathering at the Boston conven-
tion, composed of fake delegates from
fake locals representing no one but
themselves, in order to put the rub
Der stamp of approval on the pro-
gram which has brought the union
TO brink Of ruin.
"The maneuvers of the clique dur
ing the pre-convention period, the
elimination of every candidate in dis
agreement with its official policies.
clearly demonstrates that the mass
Of the cloak and dressmakers can ex-
pect nothing from this fake conven-
ton and that only through their own
efforts, through the unity and mo-
bilization of the workers themselves.
is there any hope of rebuilding the
union and restoring union conditions.
Sigman Unites Against Workers.
"For seventeen months the ruinous
war waged by the international
CLIQUE, under the leadership of Presi-
dent Morris Sigman, has been going
on in New York. This war against
the membership has been character
lied by the most brutal and shame
sul terrorism, treachery and provoca-
ton. In order to force their DONNA
tion on the workers the clique has
made a united front with the bosses,
the state authorities, the police and
the courts.
Thousands of workers have been
forced out of the shops and deprived
Of the opportunity to earn liveli-
hood for their families. Hundreds
have been manned and crippled by
hired thugs. Tens of workers have
been sentenced to long terms of i'm
prisonment at the instigation of Sig
man and his henchmen. While hun
dreds of thousands of miners and
workers in other industries are bat
tling heroically against the injunc-
ton menace, the International clique
with the aid of the A. F. of L., the
bosses and the Tammany Judge, like
the reactionaries in other unions, has
taken out most vicious injunctionS
prohibiting picketing and aiming te
imprison the leaders of the Joint
Board; thus setting dangerous pre-
cedent which will be used by the
bosses in every labor struggle.
The Workers Iron Wall"
"For seventeen months the cloak
and dressmakers, under the leader
ship of the Joint Board, have Offered
an iron wall of resistance against all
attacks and treacheries of the united
front Of reaction, realizing that they
were not fighting to preserve the
unions of the needle trade workers
Continued on Page 7'aoo)