The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-06-16
Bv w, G. MURDOCH.

BY w. G. MURDOCH.
WITH eight weeks of the membership drive
W for 5000 new members into our union
already over, it is time to take stock of our
standing, and from the examination of our
weak points and shortcomings to prepare the
ground for an intensive three weeks of work
in conclusion.
After eleven weeks of the recruiting drive
we find that we have not drawn in 10 per
cent of the membership assigned to us. The
members we have secured come more than
so per cent from the three districts where the
economic crisis is felt most severely and
where the various campaigns of our union are
taken most seriously.
In the three districts of the union where
the drive has been most successful we have
only a mere handful of Communist Party
members, and no other branch of the Trade
Union Unity League in existence. In New
York, with the most powerful district of the
Party having headquarters there, we have
only brought in fifteen members into the
union, during the drive; in Paterson with
strong Party membership in the Textile
Union, we have not reached 10 per cent of
the quota. In Philadelphia, with big struggles
taking place in the district, with the work
ers responding to our agitation, we have only
a little over per cent Of the quota assigned.
Communists we have reached 46 per cent of
our quota. In Georgia, where the Party is
very small, we have secured % per cent of
the quota assigned, despite the fact that our
organizer there was very young and had had
no previous experience in organization and
this after we consider that our entire organ
izing staff has been in Jail for the past few
weeks. In Rhode Island, with a very weak
general movement, and with union activity
practically nil for long period we have
been able to draw in 81 per cent of the quota
set the district within one week.
Situation Similar To Other Union Campaigns.
Our union set itself the task during the re-
cruiting campaign of building up Labor Unity
as the collective organizer of the union, and
creating a monthly textile paper supple
ment to the official general organizer of the
entire Trade Union Unity League-Labor
Unity. Let us examine how the campaign to
build Labor Unity has been carried on. New
Bedford sent in articles; Rhode Island ar
ticles, the South 4, Paterson 3, Philadelphia
1, New York 1 and Lawrence 1. Preparations
for the mass distribution of the paper a
medium of making new connections with other
workers for the movement have been made
only in New Bedford, Rhode Island, Lawrence
and the South. Philadelphia reports ar
rangements; New York complains that 500
copies are too many for a city with $4,000
textile workers. Despite the fact that the
workers are much more poorly paid in the
New England and southern districts, they are
making a sincere attempt to carry on the
campaign, and their activity in this campaign
is being reflected in other work.
Red International of Labor Unions.
Only the New England and southern dis
tricts have made any attempt to acquaint the
workers in their industry with the campaign
for the election of delegates to the R. l. L. u
congress and the building of an International
Textile Workers Union. Paterson district is
now beginning to take this campaign serious
ly. In New York when the question of the
English General Strike in Woolens was men,
toned as means of spreading our organiza-
tional base among the English workers
throughout New England and Philadelphia,
one New York worker suggested that the
writer was being Nationalstc. Evidently the