The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-08-21
Whose Are the "SCab" Unions ?

. l. AAOA ~ o
have brought untold suffering to
the tens of thousands of cloak and
dressmakers, call us an opposition
scab union and get themselves blue
in the face shouting Sulkises and
scab agents at us. But their hys-
terical cries will fall on deaf ears
and will not mislead anyone. The
meeting at the Stadium, attended by
more than fifteen thousand work
ers, had demonstrated that thru
bluffs and terror they cannot force
the workers to belong to their COM
pany union.
Their fairy tales that the cloak
makers and dressmakers do not
come to our meetings, that the cloak
and dressmakers are with them, are
recognized even by themselves as
shameful lies, for had they really
believed their own statements they
would not have refused to accept
our challenge to submit the issues
of the struggle to referendum
vote under the supervision of an
impartial committee. Are not their
statements, to the effect that they
are fighting against a Communist
dictatorship which we supposedly
want to foist on the union, the
greatest swindle since they them
selves have refused and are afraid
to submit the matter to the MEM
bers when we, who are supposed to
be the Communist dictators, have
demanded it and have fought for it
all along? If they were really
fighting against the Communist die
tatorship and democracy they would
not oppose democratic and legal
manner of electing officers under
the supervision of an impartial COM
nittee. Their refusal to let the
members decide on the struggle was
actuated by the knowledge that
through democratic, constitutional
and legal methods they could never
remain in the union because the
membership will never elect insur-
ance and real estate agents as their
leaders.
Mass Movement
We are not building Commun-
list Union, as "The Forward" would
have it, but a union of all cloak
and dressmakers, regardless of their
opinions, race or color. In the shop
the boss does not make distinctions
between workers who are left or
right, socialist or Communist, Jews
or Italians; there are no privileged
individuals there; they are all
equally exploited by the boss. In
the same way, if the union is to be
strong enough to curb the bosses
appetite for profits and improve the
conditions of the workers, the union
cannot make any discriminative
laws against any worker of the
trade, irrespective of his political
opinions Or party affiliations. Ex-
ception and persecution laws
against one part of the membership
mean discrimination against all
members.
A leadership which is truly repre-
sentative of the members, does not
have to employ the terroristic meth
DDS employed by the Sigman-Schles-
niger clique. The discriminative
laws and pogroms, thru which the
Sigman- Schlesinger clique strove to
maintain itself in power, are an
open confession of their total de-
moralization as labor leaders, and
thru it they have sown the seeds of
their own destruction.
The great mass of the cloak and
dressmakers pay no heed to the In
ternational clique which hurls accu-
sations of "Sulkises" and "scab
agents" at us in it's despair. The
workers know that we are building
a union which will give the mem
bers the fullest possibilities and
fullest rights to express their opin-
ion and exercise their control over
it. They know that we are building
union of cloak and dressmakers
which will not be controlled by a
clique, where the cloak and dress
makers will be sole rulers, making
it's laws, electing it's officers and
| deciding upon its policies.