The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-08-20

Scoring the reactionary policies
of the officialdom of the Machin-
lists Union, the progressive machin-
lists have issued a program and
call for action which they will ad-
vance at the coming convention of
the union. The text of the call fol-
lows, in full:
Brother Machinists:
The l. A. Of NJ. is in a most eriti-
cal condition. What was once a
powerful, militant and fighting or
ganization is now a ghostly skeleton.
Our membership has dropped from
$4,000 in 1920 to approximately TO-
900 at the present time. When in
dustry was prosperous, with excel
lent chances for organizing, We not
only did not gain members. but az
tually lost members. Now when
industry is slack, we are desperately
trying to hold our own. At present,
we have fewer machine shops I'M
der union agreement than we had
before the war. In most of the
machine industrial centers through
out the country and on many rail
roads the organization has been
wiped out altogether. Our organi-
cation campaigns have failed to or
ganize the industry. The automobile
and many other sections Of the
machine industry, comprising hum
dreds of thousands of organiZable
machinists, remain totally morgan
lied. The introduction of new tools
and new machine processes make the
unskilled and semi-skilled our COM
petitors and eliminate much of the
skill formerly required by members
of our trade. Still we do very little
to organize these masses of workers.
Unless the rank and file machinists
Immediately awake to the situation
confronting the organization and
force the coming convention to adopt
program that will meet present
conditions, the l. A. of NJ. is in
danger of being still further weak
ened, union conditions will be
further destroyed, and our standard
of living will be still further re-
duced.
We Are Following a Wrong and
Hopeless Policy
This state of affairs is the direct
outcome of the reactienary policy
forced upon the union by our. Grand
Lodge officials. They spend their
energy to organize few small
shops and give no attention to the
large machine factories. When rank
and file pressure compelled them to
act. our Grand Lodge officials to-
gether with the A. F. of L. officials
made a pretense of organizing the
automobile industry, but this cam
paign fizzled out They have aban-
doned the idea Of using the indus
trial power of the workers to fight
for better conditions and instead
rely on arbitration and the good
willr of the employers for wage in
creases; whereas all experience
shows that arbitration gets US no
where. The cases Of the c. & o.
shopmen and other railroad trades
are recent examples of what can be
expected from arbitration. Our of
sacials preach the B. & 0. Plan Of
union management cooperation to
boost production, which has brought
us no more than the workers get
who are employed in strictly open
shops. In the few strikes that were
called, they have weakened before
injunctions, abandoned picketing, and
relied on old party politicians to
fight the injunctions in court; and in
meantime the strikes were lost. They
have done nothing to carry out the
previous convention decisions for
amaleamation and conse gu n
strengthening of the organization.
Instead, they suppress every Ell
fort in this direction. In order to
continue their erroneous program,
they have expelled many members
who have the courage to fight for a
constructive change in the policy OF
the Association. Typical examples
are the Toledo case and the Lodge
No. 800 case. They even went SO
far in the Anderson case as to expei
q member for daring to demand a
fair election as a candidate Tor OF
flee against the administration
machine.
Completely failing to organize our
industry, arbitrary expulsion OF mill
tant and loyal members, denying
free speech, and perpetuating them
selves in office, has been the record
of our Grand Lodge officialdom dur
ing the past eight years.
A Fighting Program Needed
Although we are facing most inn
portant convention and the ? ssocia-
tion is engaged in life-and-death
struggle, our officials have no pro-
gram whatever that will rebuild the
A of M. and assure us better