The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-22
Mass Meeting Demand End Ship Bosses Dggardo Workers Lie
LACK or UNION
MAKES SEAMEN'S
DANCER GREAT
Vestris Case Is Good
Example
Continued from Pnae one

Continued from, Page One
Union), but by militant union big
enough to take in every worker in
the whole industry, is necessary to
call halt on coffin ships"
At present the sailors are prac-
tically unorganized. the I.S.U. is q
rotten, drifting hulk and the I.W.W
union the Marine Transport Work
ers is but a shadow, made so, not
by the sailors, but by what the sea-
men themselves call "freakish tao
tics" and impossible policies.
Unions Gone On the Rocks
"Once the l. S. U. had $4,000
MEMBERS" said George Mink, head
of the Marine Workers Progressive
League which is organized in many
ports. "Now the 1. S. U. itself ad-
mits it has only 5000. But it wasn't
any credit to the leadership that the
I. S. U. had $4,000 members in
1921. You see the government organ
lied them to help win the war for
democracy
"Old Andy Furuseth, head of the
|. S. u, was hanging around the
Hobbies at Washington trying to get
congress to pass LaFollette's bill,
which Andy thought was the only
thing THAI would emancipate the
seamen. Andy, who believed in 100
per cent Americanism, was tickled
to death to help the government and
the ship owners to whip the Kaiser.
War Babies"
when the allies went to war in
1914 and the American capitalists
went into the scramble for war
profits. clear up to 1919 the U. 6.
Shipping Board established factories
'to manufacture Sailors school ships
to train land lubbers which was
the port and which the starboard
side of a boat, and so on. A lot
of these graduates were pretty
much as ignorant when they went
in as when they came out, and the
real sailors call them war babies
The reason was that men swere
scarce and shipping heavy. So they
sent the war babies down to the
l. S. U. hall and lined them up as
union men. The torpedo danger, faced
at sea with these war babies made
the old timers scornful of them and
darned particular what kind of a
boat they sailed on.
Seamen Rebel
"But up to 1919 Andy Furuseth
was still signing agreements on the
two-watch system, which means
twelve hours a day, and peddling
patriotism efficiency and so on to
the seamen. The I. S. U. bought
100000 in Liberty bonds. But in
1919 the men got sick of the two
watch system and Andy's CUFF, and
threatened to strike. The shipping
trust granted the three-watch (eight
hour) system in "a hours without a
strike.
But Furuseth never believed in
letting the men organize solidly. He
kept the west coast sailors playing
against the east and Gulf seamen.
Once an east coast sailor died on
the west coast and Furuseth would
not even bury him!
Owners Attack
when depression set in about
1921, and the I. S. U. agreement ex-
pired, the shipping trust saw its
chance. With INFLAMMATION of the
industry and the help of the war
babies it figured it would break the
unions only source of strength by
putting the real seamen of the old
school, the militants, on the beach,
jobless, blacklist them and start
'Americanization.' That's what they
call the open shop.
"The shipping companies refused
to renew the contract and strike was
declared by the men, much to Furu-
seth's disgust. He fastened to sell
out the strike although the seamen
were 100 per cent solid and the ships
were tied up. Andy's business agent
cliques squandered the big treasury
with faxed expenses, while the men
went without any relief, sleeping on
the floors of union halls and fight
ing scabs and police. Some went to
Jail for picketing without any de-
tense help from the union and some
of them are yet in the Maine peni-
Tertiary.