The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-01-18
BIGBATTLES
FOR NEEDLE
w OR K E R S
Fighting Abilities Are
Greater Tran Ever
BY ROSE WORTIS

puL IneSe past IL months nave been
months of storm and stress, of grave
and bitter struggle, during which
the Union has stood the acid test
and has more than justified it's ex-
istence.
The Needle Trades Workers In
dustrial Union was born as a result
of the bitter class struggle of the
needle trades workers, and it's very
first day it plunged headlong into
the midst of the struggle, demon
strating its readiness and ability to
lead it's workers in the needle trades
against their class enemies and for
the improvement of their working
standards and conditions.
Struggle Against Burocrats
The struggle against the reaction
airy bureaucracy, which began in
1926, had weakened and undermined
the organization of the needle trades
workers. The bosses, working hand
in hand with the right wing bureau
crazy of the A. F. of L., hoped that
at least they would break the fight
ing spirit of the needle trades work
ers. But the organization of the
Industrial Union proved to the bosses
that insteal of defeating the work
ers, instead of paralyzing their mill
fancy, the struggle had merely
taught the workers that if they are
to fight effectively for their inter-
ests they must build new union
as an instrument for class struggle
instead of class collaboration.
The strike of the dressmakers,
which the Industrial Union carried
through Immediately upon its incep-
ton, aroused the worst fears of the
bosses. They realized that the de-
cadent bureaucracy of the needle
trades-the Schlesingers, the Dublin
skys-could not beat the workers
into submission, and they decided to
take direct leadership of the strug-
gle, using the company union as their
tool. 1t is now an openly admitted
fact, even by the bosses themselves,
in official statements by their
spokesman, Mr.. Klein, the manager
of their Industrial Council, that the
subsequent fake strike conspiracy in
the cloak trade was planned and car
ried through by the bosses, Schles-
singer and his henchmen merely do
ing their bidding as their willing
agents.
Through this maneuver, the bosses
had temporarily succeeded in beating
the cloakmakers into seeming sub
mission, but the conditions of the
workers resulting from this fake
strike became so degrading, the
speed-up system, the long hours and
inhuman treatment so intolerable,
the wages so miserable, that the dis
contented cloakmakers became fully
aware of the fraud perpetrated
against them and are now beginning
gradually to awaken from their pas
sivity and will sooner or later give
expression to this discomfort by an
open revolt against the conditions of
slavery forced upon them by the
bosses and their agents.
Coming Struggles.
These struggles of the past year
have been but the prelude to the
important struggles that are fac
ing the needle trades workers dur
ing the coming year. The supreme
task of the Industrial Union dur
ing the coming weeks will be in the
dress trade, which today is the
most important branch in the lad
les garment industry, employing
tens of thousands of workers who
are subjected to the most ruthless
exploitation. As a result of the
treachery of the company union,
the dress trade is at the present
time largely unorganized. Condi-
tons are unbearable. The workers
are discontinued and ripe for or
ganization.
Company Unions Real Danger.
The bosses and the company union,
aware of these activities of the In
dustrial Union and seeing the spec
ire of defeat and humiliation once
the mass of the dressmakers come
under the leadership of the left wing
Union, are exerting all their efforts
to take advantage of tbs growing
discomfort of the dresmakers and
lead them into the folds of the COM
pany union through a fake strike
maneuver. The whole reactionary
machine of the A. F. of L., the yell
low socialist party, the bosses and
the State authorities, is now directed
against the dressmakers. They know
that their company-union in the
cloak field will collapse like house
of cards, and they are trying to boil
ster up their company union and
stave off impending bankruptcy by
further acts of treachery against the
workers
The dress field, during the COM
ing few weeks, will be the scene of
the most severe and decisive strug-
gle, of great moment, not only to
the needle trades workers, but to
the entire militant labor move
ment. The workers, under the lead
ership of the Industrial Union, will
have to face and defeat the most
concentrated attack of the COM
bined forces of the enemy. The
dress trade is the strategic battle
front for the Industrial Union. The
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