The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-06-22
Fosters Acceptance Speech

ment cooperative" and the whole en-
ployer program of devitalizing and
company unionizing the trade unions.
The socialists are every bit as inca
pable of leading the workers in this
crisis as the most reactionary takers
of the American labor movement.
The Struggle of the Coal Miners.
The debacle now taking place in the
United Mine Workers Of America is
a basic expression of the crisis in the
labor movement, a conclusive example
of the absolutely incapacity of the
present leadership of the trade unions
to organize and lead the masses. The
U. M. w. A., which just a few years
ago controlled 80 per cent of produc-
ton in the bituminous fields, has been
reduced by the loss of district after
district, to where it now controls not
more than 20 per cent of the blum
inous production. In the present strike
the employers are destroying three of
the key sections of the U. M. w. A.
and thereby destroying the base of
the whole union. All the heroic strug-
giles of these miners have not been
able to avail them against the treach-
cry of their leaders in the face of
this great. attack by the employers.
The present miners strike is the most
important strike in the history of
America. Bound up with this strike
is the very life of the old trade union
movement. The breakdown of the
miners union in this struggle throws
the whole trade union movement of
the country into jeopardy.
1t is not my point here today to
dwell upon the heroic struggle of
these miners, as it has been very
much discussed during this conven-
ton. The rank and file miners seem
to realize the tremendous significance
of the strike, They have fought for
Ia months against the coal operators,
against the government, with a hero
ism unparalleled. One of the things,
comrades, that we must do with all
our vigor when we return to our var
ious districts, is to mobilize all our
forces to gather every possible dollar
of relief for the brave coal miners of
the strike districts. This relief mon
icy we must not send to the American
Federation of Labor or to the u. M.
W. A. where it would be used for the
shameful purpose of paying the huge
salaries of John L. Lewis and his la
Dor CRATER friends (Which run to
$4,000 year, while the striking
miners starve. Send it to the Nation
al Miners Relief Committee in Pitts
burgh which will use the money for
actually feeding the impoverished
miners who are out on strike. Gap
plause.)
The hope and promise of the coal
industry is the growing revolt of the
rank and file miners. More and more
they are learning the futility of Lew
is policies, and realizing that such
policies can only lead to the loss Of
their union conditions and the liqui-
dation of all union organization. The
Save-the- Union movement, with it's
historic slogans of Lewis must go"
and Workers, Take Control of Your
Union," is the greatest upheaval ever
known in the American labor move
Iment. From among the ruins of the
U. M. w. A. wrecked by the treach-
cry Of the Lewis regime, the rank
and file miners are building new or
Iganization, one which, animated by a
spirit of class struggle, will organize
the great mass of miners and lead
them VIGOROUSLY against the oper-
ators. Our Party may well be proud
lof the role played by it in the pres