The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-08-26

The Flint strike was led by the Auto Work
ers' Union, affiliated with the Trade Union
Unity League. AS long as the Auto Workers
Union maintained its leadership the strike
continued to grow. Each day the strength of
the workers increased. Each day saw new
victory for the strikers. Yet the General Mo-
tors Corporation, with the help of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor officialdom, finally
succeeded in breaking the solidarity of the
workers and smashing the strike.
ItAis not the first time that the A. F. of L.
has broken strikes of auto workers In 1928,
it broke the strike of the General Motors
workers in Oshawa, Canada, and attempted to
do the same in the Flint oil sanders strike of
that year. Earlier this year, it broke the
strike at the Hayes Body Plant in Indianapolis
by means of false agreement that the COM
pany would meet the workers demands pro-
vided they accepted the leadership of the A.
F. of L. This agreement was Immediately re-
pudiated soon as the strikers returned to
work. In Flint, the A. F. of L. again sue
ceeded in its strikebreaking role, once more
demonstrating the danger of Understanding
the insidious influence of the fascist leader
ship of the A. F. of L.
Auto Workers Union.
The Auto Workers Union is we'll known to
thousands of workers in Detroit, Flint, Pom
tiac, etc. 1t is the only union carrying on pro-
paganda, shop-gate meetings, and demonstra-
tions for the purpose of building up militant
union in the auto industry. The A. F. of L.
does absolutely nothing to organize the work
ers. How then can the A. F. of l.. carry out
their strke-breaking role? The Flint strike
shows how. The miitancy of the A. w. U.
and its leadership is unquestionabe, yet SER
ious mistakes were made which played into the
hands of the enemy.
First vital differences between the strikers
leaders and the union should have been brought
out into the open before the great body of the
strikers Such questions as the tendency of
Comstock, chairman of the strike committee
to curry favor with the police; his efforts to
hold back the mitancy of the workers, the
desire to limit the demands of the strikers
to satisfy only few of the more skilled
categories of the workers, these questions
should not only have been fought out in the
strike committee only but should also have
been brought before the mass meetings of the
strikers. Comstock & Co. should have been
denounced openly before the great body of
strikers earlier in the strike and replaced by
strikers who had demonstrated their mtancy
and courage in the conduct of the strike.
Strikebreakng Tactics of the G. M. C.
The policy of the company to break the
propaganda against outsiders such as Reds,
Detroiters, etc., leading the Flint strikers
(2) To spread the idea that the police were
friendly to the strikers but objected to the
outsiders" 80 That the company would deal
favorably with the strikers provided they re-
pudiated the leadership of the A. w. U. az
To arrest every leader of the A. W. u and
the T. U. U. L. that the police could lay hands
on; also to arrest the more militant of the
strikers themselves (Comstock and his group
seemed miraculously immune from arrest)
~ To mobilize stoolpigeons and weaker ele-
ments of the strike committee, and the A. F.
of L. officials to seize the leadership of the
strike, repudate the A. w. U. and prevent
any further militant action of the workers.
(6) To concentrate more city and state troop
ers and police, gangsters and militia to COW
the workers into submission. () To attempt
to break the solidarity of the workers by send
ing foremen, ETC., to visit strikers at their
homes. (S) To terrorize the workers by po-
lice raids upon their homes, threats of severe
punishment, as well as by use of armed
forces to break the mass picketing.
While the A. w. U. leaders were with the
strikers they were able to counter the bosses
attacks. About 60 militant A. w. u. leaders