The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-11-06
How to Build A Shop Committee

ment committees by utilizing all the important
grievances which the workers have against the
bosses in their department.
2.-Those department committees then elect
delegates to body which represents all of these
organized department committees and therefore
the workers in the entire plant.
3.-This body is called the shop committee and
this shop committee serves our basic shop
organization because this committee not only
represents the aims and the desires and the
grievances of a particular department but it
represents and gives leadership and organization
for building up the struggle of all workers in the
shop.
4. All this, then would mean that the shop
committee is built in the course of our prepara-
ton for struggle through the building up of de-
partment committees which will elect the dele
gates and these delegates constitute the shop
committee.
The function of the shop committee as stated
above is to discuss the issues brought up by the
workers, to prepare the workers in the whole
shop for program of immediate action. The
immediate task of the shop committee is to ap-
ply our program of struggle through the proper
and skillful Applicant ~ of united front pol
icy and the application of our strike strategy
The shop committee certainly must have its
regular meetings and at these meetings the COM
mittees should discuss the general situation in
the shop and on the basis of these conditions be-
gin to prepare the workers for struggle against
wage cuts speed up, or whatever the outstanding
grievances of all the workers in the shop are
The shop committee has as its task to carry
out the general policy of our union or national
league. The shop committee has further as its
task the building up of special organizing COM
mitteeS special committees of action and what
ever other committees are necessary for the de-
Velopment OF our program of strikes. The shop
committee would have to see to it that we pop
ularize and organize as many workers in the
respective department around our strike slogans
as possible. For the organization of workers
around our strike slogans, it would be necessary
Tor the shop committee to organize broad dis
cussion among the workers, to elect rank and
file strike committees, these committees must in
clude all departments and sections in the plant
The workers must voice their opinion of our
general strike program and demands by an ac-
tual vote.
The shop committee would further give out
shop bulletins and general leaflets and literature
in order to actually unity and coordinate the
shop. These bulletins must be issued regularly
ana should contain the concrete demands as
well as the program Of struggle of the shop
committee The material in the shop bulletin
must come from the workers In the shop and
must deal specifically with the issues the work
ers arc confronted with.
The shop committee must have further as its
task to get the workers to join our red unions
and leagues. The workers in the department
committees and organizations might be loyal to
their shop movement but are not yet ready to
join our union. Then again among these workers
organized into these different committees we
might find rank and file workers of the
OF L. unions who unconsciously oppose and work
against our union. but nevertheless are ready to
follow NE program of our union or league as
1t is applied in that particular shop or ierart-
ment.
Explain the Union
In this connection the task of our members
who are elected into the shop committee Is to
win these workers away from the A. F. Of L.
unions and to bring them into our movement
This, therefore, would require that the shop
committees which we are organizing are always
on guard against the policy of the fascist and
social fascist leaders and to actually build an
open struggle in order to expose the sell-out
policy OF the officials of the A. F. of L. This
must be done on the basis of citing concrete is
sues telling the workers how and why these mis-
leaders are agents of the bosses We must at all
times make sharp distinction between the rank
and file workers of the A. F. of L. and its off,
Gals We will run up against the following stu
alton:
We will have committees although organ
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