The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-02-13
WOMEN URGED TO
BACK BIG STRIKE
CT DRESSMAKERS
Party Women's Dept.
Issues Statement

The general attack OF the bosses
on wages and hours and their cam
paign for rationalizing industry
that is, for scientific exploitation Of
the workers to the limit, which i;
being carried out in all industrie:
in America today, along with the
development of American imperial
ism and the competition for worlt
markets and cheap production, finds
working women its readiest victims
due to their weak economic position
and their lack of organization.
Treason of Yellows.
Today the women workers in the
needle trades, as elsewhere, are sui
fering from this attack of the bosses
on their wages, hours and union or
ganization, aided by the union
smashing tactics of the corrupt
Right wing union officialdcm backed
up by the socialist party and its
anti-labor Jewish Daily Forward who
are working hand in hand with the
bosses.
The women workers in the dress
industry, who through great efforts
and sacrifices have struggled to
build union to fight for and de-
fend their interests, find themselves
today, because of this very struggle
and the strength they have shown
the object of bitter attack by the
combination of traitorous official
dom of the Schlesinger In
ernational with the employers to
wipe out the union, to destroy union
standards and organization in the
shops and introduce yellow company
unionisnl.
Building of Union.
The great dresmakers' strike of
1909, when tens of thousands of
militant women workers rebelled
against the conditions of the sweat
shops and through their valiant
struggle blazed the path Of organi-
cation for all the workers in the
needle trades, set new and higher
standards of wages and hours and
organization for working women IN
all industries. The organization of
great masses of women workers in
the dressmakers' union gave an i'm
petus to the organization of unor-
ganized women workers in the other
needle trades and in other indus
tries. Through the militant action
and fighting spirit of the workers
in the face of the bitter opposition
Of the employers and the sabotage
and betrayal of the union officials
a union was built up which was .
bulwark of women's trade union or
ganization and strengthened the pc.
sition of women workers everywhere
The workers of the dress indus
try and the women workers in tht
front rank, have put up a desperate
resistance to this combination o.
greedy bosses and rotten officialdom
They have endured hunger, unem
ployment, expulsion from the shops
of the Sigman international and thu
attacks of the police and gangster
on the picket line, injunctions ant
prison sentences. The heelers O
HICKMAN, Sigman and Schlesinge
are putting the climax to the recor'
of betrayal by openly acting as scab
against these militant workers.
Present Strike.
The dressmakers' strike Of toda.
Is the elimination Of long and bit
ter struggle for a real union in tn
dress industry, a fighting uniol
built on the basis of class strug
gle with the needle trades worker
completely freed of their blood
sucking officialdom, the first strik
with all needle trades workers uni
ted in the industrial struggle regard
less. of craft differences, the frs
strike with all sections of the enem
clearly and openly lined up togethe
in the opposite trench, the bosses
the bureaucrats, the American Fed
Grafton of Labor, the gangsters, tn
police, the whole apparatus OF tn
underworld and the bosses Tan
many government, together with tn
capitalist political parties, includin
the socialist party.
Against this abor-baiting cor
spiracy the workers are united
struggle for the organization
the dress industry, for union shop
and union conditions, for a figf
against the speed-up and capitals
decentralization, for the abolition c
piece work, the restoration of tn
minimum wage scales and the forty
hour week, for the right to organ
ize and maintain a workers unio
against the bosses and their con
pany union.
Militancy of Women Workers.
The women workers are playin
a great part in this struggle. Thol
sands of them have come out G
strike and are on the picket linz
fighting the police and the gangstel
with the same spirit and determil
alton that the working women hay
shown in every labor struggle,
Passaic, in the mine strike, in Ne
Bedford. In this strike all worker
are united regardless Of nationalii
ard race. The Negro women wor
crs in particular, have responded
great numbers and with great figh
ing spirit to the strike call.
They have waged this strugg
under the leadership of the LIE
wing, the Trade Union Education
T~au,o aud tho Workers (Cor1ml