The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-08-22
By CLARENCE MILLER.
written in CASTOR County alb

NWIltteH Ill OdSIOH COunJy AM
The textile workers in the South
have awakened. Thousands of tex
tile workers are falling in line Of a
great mass movement. There are
100000 textile workers in the south.
The bulk of the cotton manufactur-
ing industry is located here, as is
also some of the hosiery and rayon
industry. The rayon industry was
the last to invade the South and it
is the first being developed. 1t is
strategic in the organization of the
textile workers of the South, not
only from the fact that it is a war
industry, and can on short notice
be converted into gun cotton manu-
featuring, but especially from the
large number of workers employed
in the individual establishments, i. e.,
the Bemberg and Glantzdof rayon
mills in Elizabethton, that was re-
Gently on strike employs over 5000
workers; the rayon plant being COM
pleted in Asheville, is to employ TO-
900 workers. Of course, the textile
movement in the south at the pres
ent moment must be considered from
the industry as whole and not from
the view point of a particular branch.
The movement now is movement of
all the textile workers. In way the
movement even expresses the main
issues confronting all the workers in
the South, in the mining, tobacco,
steel, and various other industries
that have been developed in the
last years.
The Treachery TO the A. F. of l..
The movement of the textile work
ers is ar elementary response to the
greatest of oppression. No section
of the American workers are as OPP
pressed as are The workers here.
These workers have never before
participated in a mass movement.
At most they participated in isolated
strikes, at times even under the
leadership" of the A. F. of L., but
but needless to say they were sold
out and betrayed. The workers were
forced back beaten, after the A. F.
of l.. officials got their reward and
disappeared from the scene. The
South has many examples of this
treachery of the American Fedora
ton of Labor, e. G. Greensville, S.
c., in 1919, Kannapolis, N. c. (where
the largest towel factory is located)
in 1919, Columbus, Ca, in 1922,
Charlotte, N. c., in 1922 also in
Gastonia N. G. in 1921. Those were
some of the outstanding betrayals
there many more. The methods of
the sell outs was similar to the one
in Elizabethton, Tenn and Ware
Shoals, S. c. recently. After the
A. F. of L. officials leave the field,
the workers are left without relief
and without leadership. Most of the
leading strikers in Ware Shoals and
Elizabethton have been blacklisted,
many of them are being forced out
of the industry and must return to
the mountains from where they ORR
ginally hail.
Despite the fact that the textile
workers of the South are morgan
lied and have little experience in
organization, the know the U. T.
w. and the A. F. of L. When Fred
Beal first came to Gastonia he had
to assure the workers that our union
was not the A. F. of l.. This is
true of many other localities.
For several years the A. F. of L.
under pressure of the left wing was
forced to pass resolution for organ
izine the Southern workers, but
now that the workers in the South
are in molten, under militant lead
ership, determined to win better con-
ditions, the A. F. of L. will become
"active." Their task will be to make
the South safe for the mill owners.
They Will take the front line in the
fight against the Communists and
the textile workers. The 'revolu-
tionary" phrases Of the Music group
are the bait for the militant workers.
The treachery of the A. F. of l.. has
Started-the worst is yet to come.