The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-08-24


Taking his sentiments as typical of
those expressed by other workers,
we have to realize that the level of
class consciousness is yet quite low
among the workers in the automobile
industry.
However, even some of our lead
ing comrades in the Detroit district
underestimated this strike believing,
as one of our comrades expressed
it, that this twas the old usual de-
partment walkout."
Our comrades did not fully realize
that the conditions in the automobile
industry at present have reached the
point where any department walk
out may and can be broadened and
sharpened into larger struggle be-
cause the naturalization process in
the automobile industry does not
only result in cut of wages but
produces instability and job in
security for the worker.
Changing Conditions.
The automobile industry is be-
coming more seasonal, the ever
changing styles of cars are giving
the employers more and mere of an
opportunity to speed up production
and get more work out in a given
time. Therefore the average unem-
ployment time among the auto
mobile workers is becoming greater
We must bear in mind that as long
as the worker is sure of his weekly
earnings, more or less commensurate
with his standard of living, he will
not be so ready to resist. But when
this base of security is taken away
from him, and this is not only in Gen
eral Motors but also in Fords, then
under the pressure of conditions, he
will resist. We therefore must view
every department walkout as a
manifestation of a changing frame
of mind among the automobile work
ers, and we must try to broaden
and extend this resistance.
The second shortcoming in the
Flint strike was that there were nc
general demands to draw into the
the strike the workers of the other
related crafts. In the automobile in
dustry, as in all modern industries
the production of the machine is
divided into given units, each one
of these units being made up of a
group of operations. The produc-
ton of the whole car can be tied
up if we learn and know how to tie
up the correlated operations which
make up the component parts of the
machine.
Broaden Demands.
We must, therefore, issue such de-
mands as will appeal to the work
ers of the other crafts in the in
dustry so that strike will mean some
thing to them and encourage them to
participate in order to maintain or
improve their conditions.
The third shortcoming of this
strike was that the leadership of the
strike did not sufficiently try to ex-
tend the strike to the other plants
of the Fisher body in Detroit, Cleve-
land and other cities.
We must remember that the pres
ent highly developed industries work
on the basis of ever increasing pro-
duction. These companies create
enough subsidiaries to enable them
to carry on production in case of
labor troubles. We therefore, find
that these large concerns always
have branches in other cities, under
their own name and aften under
other names.
The strikers from the Fisher body
plant of Flint, Michigan, should try
to hold meetings at the Fisher body
plants of Detroit and to extend the
strike in the several Fisher body
plants of Detroit.
Dramatic Struggle.
Fourthly, the strike was not suffi
GENTLY dramatized in order to draw
the attention both of the workers O.
the auto industry and all the othe,
workers to it.
While making this criticism, WI
must realize that our comrades wer
very much handicapped becaus'
there was no Communist nucleus tt
give direction and form the backbone
of the struggle. Not only was there NJ
shop nucleus, but there was not evel
shop committee, union or an.
other organized group with connec
tions in other departments which
could make possible the spreading
of the struggle to the other depart
ments and plants of the company.
(Tomorrow's article will deal witt
perhaps the most important phase
of the study yet printed, the question