The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-06-09
Organizing the Unorganized in
the Building Trades

the part Of some comrades as to our tasks.
~ The failure to apply the T.U.U.L. policy
correctly. (2) The hesitation and refusal on
the part of some comrades to apply the line
of the TU.U.L. in given situation.
Comrade Taylor in his article on the role
of the T.U.UL. in the building trades A. F.
of L. locals shows us very clearly the lack of
understanding correctly the line of the T.U.U.L
and consequently a wrong application of the
line. He states that the policy of the T.U.UL.
in the building trades is an opportunist line
and that if applied would isolate our COM
rades from the building trades unions where
we have no contact or T.U.U.L groups 1t
seems to me that Comrade Taylor does not
understand that we cannot apply the T.U.U.L.
line in those locals where we have no groups,
that tn. Tt. U.L. groups are built around the
T.U.U.L. program and not around progressive
programs" How comrades can be expelled
from A. F. of L. locals without them organ
izing militant fight around the revolution
airy program is still unclear to me- Apparently
Comrade Taylor does not see that building
the TU.U.L. is not thing in itself but that
it is organicaly bound up with the every day
struggles of the workers.
What the T.U.U.L. Program Is Not
Comrade Taylor further states that it would
be criminal to continue with this program in
the locals where we have no T.U.U.L. groups
What program he does not state, nor does
he propose any immediate steps how to broad
en- our activity in the A. F. of L. Comrade
Taylor fails to understand that while in gen.
eral the TU.U.L. speaks openly to do away
with the fascist A. F. of L. it also states that
we must apply our program according to the
situation as it presents itself. Comrade Tay-
or does not orientate himself towards build
ing revolutionary building trades union but
just the opposite, ORIGINATING towards reform
ing the A. F. of L. (1) Trade union legalism
(2) Fear to attack the officials of these unions
openly. (3) Constitutional regularity plays
very important part yet with Comrade
Taylor.
1t is precisely for these reasons that we
are not building the T.U.UL. Comrades are
still reasoning as in the period when be-
leved we must not organize outside the A.
F. of L.
The Program of the T.U.U.L.
The program of the TUU.L is primarily
based on the organization of the unorganzed
and it is from this point that we have to
orientate ourselves How does this apply to
the building trades? There are as many un-
organized building trades workers as there
are organized workers. The unorganized are
Lne DaSe from Wnlcn our DullulnR lrdOeS Lea
que must set its drive to organize. This drive
to organize the unorganized must not be sep
arated from our work within the A. F. of L.
but on the contrary it must be closely con-
nected.
AS stated before, various opinions are held
by some of the leading comrades of building
trades, namely: the underestimation of the T.
UU.L and therefore the overestimation of the
STRENGTH of the fascist unions of the A. F. of
J.. This can be very we'll traced to Comrade
Fishers article dealing with building trades.
Fishers Article.
While Comrade Fisher points out correctly
chat there are as many unorganized building
trades workers in New York as there are or
ganized, he states that great portion of
these workers are not organized due to the
conditions under which they work. By stating
this Comrade Fisher loses the main task of
the T.U.UL., namely: the organization of the
unorganized. He places Chinese wall around
the unorganized building trades workers and
says they cannot be organized but he does not
give the reasons for this formulation. True
enough that most of these workers working
in New York are engaged in alteration
work and therefore work for small contract
ors but does that stop us from organizing?
On the contrary, it is precisely for this rea.
son that these workers are underpaid and are
working long hours, that the base for organ
ization is more favorable for u.s. Comrade