The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-05-26


worker. The average received dur
ing the last four weeks of unemploy-
ment shall serve as the basis.
a. Establishment of public kitchens
by municipalities to provide for all
unemployed workers and their fam
lilies.
5. Municipal provision for supply
ing free medical treatment, medicine
and hospital care to all unemployed.
6. Public works. The federal, state
and city governments should devise
schemes for improving the roads and
bridges of the country, improving the
rivers, canals, docks and harbors, set
ting up electric power stations, re-
forestation, land drainage and land
reclamation, extension and electrified
ton of railways. On all public works
trade union wages and conditions
must be guaranteed by law.
z. Immediate abolition of all va
grancy laws. Protection of unemployed
workers from arrest on charges of
vagrancy.
The Offensive of the Bosses.
The working class of this country
is facing great crisis. A general
offensive of the bosses is being con-
Quoted against the workers, an Of
fensive to smash the whole trade
union movement, to lower the stand
ard of living of all workers.
The classification of capital, the
erection of huge monopolies, the all
embracing naturalization have in
creased the power of the bosses ire
mendously.
The capitalists are using all methods
of naturalization mercilessly. Wage
cuts eveTywhere-in the shoe, tex
tile, automobile and rubber industries
and in mining. A whole system of
speed-up has been put in operation
The stop watch, group piece work,
bonus system, efficiency engineering,
the conveyor or travelling belt sys-
tenn, increase mass production and in
tensify the exploitation of the work
ers. Concentration of industries,
Fertilization, technical innovations, and
the wholesale introduction of new ma
chinery is the order of the day. The
frightening of working hours is at
tempted everywhere, with especially
disastrous results for the unskilled
workers. An injunction mania raves
against every movement of the work
ers to resist the effects of rationaliza-
ton. All the forces of the govern
ment-the police, state constabulary
the coal and iron police, the most in
famous spy system-are modified
against the workers. The open-shop
drive, the American Plan," is today
the official policy of the capitalist
class on the whole front. Company
unions are being set up by the bosses,
and strenuous attempts are being
made to company unionize all exist
ing trade unions. All the combined
forces of the bosses and their gov
eminent are concentrated to prevent
the organization of the unorganized
masses in the basic industries.
The trade union bureaucracy of the
A. F. of l.. has met the general of
fensive of the bosses by a general
surrender. There has never been in
the history of labor such shameful
capitulation as the treachery of the
A. F. of L. leadership and of the
Socialist Party in the present grave
situation of the American labor move
ment. Instead of fighting the shame
full efforts of capitalist rationaliza-
ton, these misleaders try to cooperate
in introducing speed-up systems and
capitalist efficiency. They put for
ward the "union-management coopera-
ton policy. They babble about Gin
dustrial democracy" They have elab-
Grated the higher strategy of la
bor," the notorious theory of Matthew
Woll about the three stages of the
American labor movement: the stages
of conflict, of collective bargaining
and of worker-employer cooperation.
They proclaim the passing of war and
truce and the coming of the age of
permanent peace between the bosses
and the workers. The trade union
bureaucracy has dropped the last SEM
blance of any resistance to company
unionizing the trade unions. They
have come out openly for the Watson
Parker Bill and for federal anti
strike law They have dropped their
previous petty trust--busting program
and have become the high apostles
of efficient" trusts.
The results Of the offensive of the
bosses and the treachery of the trade
union bureaucrats is the growing cri-
sis in the labor movement. Trust
flied industry is out for a general
open shop. The trade unions have
been driven out from all basic in
dustries. For the first time in the
history of the A. F.. of L. the num-
Der of organized workers has de-
creased even during period of pros
perity. The climax of the struggle
was reached in the present fight of
the United Mine Workers of America.
This most powerful and most mill
tant unit of the American labor move
nlent has now been broken to pieces