The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-08-27

to build the shop committees and for
recruiting union members.
Build Shop Committees.
We must understand that to or
ganize a union under the present
conditions in the automobile industry
is most complicated problem. The
industrial plutocrats will not allow
any form Of workers organization in
their shops. They realize that no
matter what form the workers or
CARNATIONS may take in their shops,
they can, especially when led by
Communists, become effective or
gans of class struggle.
The spy system in the automobile
industry is as thoro as it is in the
steel industry. Not only do they
have an industrial spy system in the
plants but they use system where
by they get suckers" to spy for
them in the company towns.
In Flint, Pontiac and all the other
company controlled towns, the COM
panies own the whole city govern
ment from the Justice of the Peace,
to the mayor. In addition to this,
all the real estate companies in
these company towns are owned and
controlled by the General Motors.
The companies have thus worked
out system whereby they kill the
organization in its embryo. AS soon
as they are informed, through their
spy system, of any organization
work or even the mood of resistance
on the part of some individual
worker, they fire this worker and
thereby kill the possibility of or
ganization.
Work Carefully.
We must therefore realize that in
order to build real union, we must
protect the more advanced workers
who are willing to join the organi-
cation in the first stages of it's de-
velopment. We must therefore lay
the basis for skeleton shop commit
tees in as many departments as pos
sible long before the union comes
out in open challenge to the powers
in the industry. This skeleton shop
committee must be built up very
carefully, using as the first medium
of contact the most advanced and
class conscious workers in the de-
partments.
These workers are to make con-
tact with those elements in their de-
partments who show some indica-
ton of class consciousness, and who
are dependable. AS soon as suffi-
cient contact is made in given de-
partment, a meeting should be held
of these workers and department
representative elected. 1T lis not
advisable, in the first stage Of or
ganization development, to call gen.
eral meetings of all the workers
who have Joined the department
groups. It would be dangerous be-
cause of the possibility of the spy
coming in and breaking up the or
ganization.
The representatives of these de-
partment groups should meet reg
ularly to discuss the conditions and
the grievances in the shops, thereby
establishing a real medium Of con-
tact which will later enable the
workers, when they are ready for
action, to establish functioning or
ganization in the shop. Simultane-
GUS with building up of these skeleton
shop committees, it is necessary to
carry on open agitation and propa-
ganda at the factory gates. Shop
papers must also become the real
living expression of the grievances
of the workers in the various de-
partments and shops.
We must utilize every resistance
on the part of the workers to
broaden the class struggle, we must
always point out to the workers that
there is a fight all along the line.