The daily worker., 1930-05-24

Labor Action" (all nine pages pure
Musteite propaganda) there are six
pages devoted to the Trade Union
Unity League, mostly on the con-
vention and draft program, and ad-
ded to this, two pages on the Ma
tional Industrial Unions and TUUL
industrial leagues, and hidden among
this, appears in ten line history of
all the tremendous activity of the
N. M. U. in 1929, this sentence: "a
subsequent tri-district convention at
Zeigler, on December 1, called the
miners strike of December g." Just
that, and nothing more, about a
strike, for which the bosses flooded
Illinois with militia, made hundreds
OF arrests, which saw miners march
ing in armies from mine to mine, in
which the 1. W. w. las admitted by
passing reference in the article on
the l. w. W., page 104) made their
latest step in degeneration by scab-
| bing in the southern fields, and for
which, after fierce battles, hundreds
were arrested. The case of the rene
gade John Watt (included in these
10 lines) is given much more space
than the Illinois strike.
Nothing stated about the N. M.
! U. is false, but you see what we
mean by propaganda when you find
that the fake strike of the l. L. G.
W., treated as a real strike and high
ly praised by the American Labor
Year Book, gets honorable mention
in the international Labor Diary,
for more than half a page is boosted
as an Organization drive" later in
the book, and in both cases largely
in anticipation, for the |. L. G. w.
dressmaker's fake strike mad not
started in the period the book COW
ers. Likewise a half page is given
the Cloth, Hat, Cap and Millinery
Workers, and both these organiza-
tions are described as "jubilant and
in mood of victory" because "they
have eliminated the Communists"
And, since, for the sake Of an ex
ample, we have entered the needle
trades, it might be all right to men,
ton that the Needle Trades Work
ers Industrial Union gets exactly
two and one third lines, over on
page 102, as follows: "The Needle
Trades Workers Industrial Union
conducted strikes Of furriers, cloak
makers and dressmakers in New
York City, and elsewhere" Not one
of these N. T. w. l. U. strikes are
mentioned in the international La
Dor Diary" though that portion of
the book does declare: July Ii
Cloakmakers' Strike of New York
ended; control over shops secured
by International Ladies Garment
Workers Union, with large gain in
membership" Also the fake strike
gets a page and a quarter, over in
the book under "Strikes and Lock-
outs. The Gastonia strike and trial
here gets 2 pages, with some mac
curacies; the Illinois miners are not
mentioned.
/ Another example of the same sort
is in that international Labor
Diary" Under a heading April 2,
the whole Gastonia strike, Aderholt
raid, trial and conviction and sent
cncing of seven leaders; is summed
up in five and one half lines. But
five lines are needed for the harm
less kidnapping of McGrady and
kidnapping of McGrady and Hoff-
man of the A. F. L. at Elizabethton!
So, that is enough of that. In
the field where the working class
could expect, from the title and
claims of the Year Book, some de-
gree of effectiveness and accuracy,
the examples given above are typical
of the treatment throughout, for all
unions and labor struggles.
When you come to the more di-
rectly political aspects of the class
struggle, where Communists and
socialists appear as political bodies,
it is of course too much to expect
any pretense of fairness from a pub
lication run by the socialist party.
Here we have polemical articles
open and unadorned. But even here,
one remarks with amazement such
a handling of the situation as the
following: "The organized Commu-
mist movement of the United States
is divided into four groups" and
then appear, listed on terms of alb
solute equality of Importance. Com
munist Party, Lovestone's organiza-
tion, Cannon's organization, and the
Proletarian Party.
The article on the Soviet Union
is forced to admit progress, but re-
peats the ISLANDERS of Abramovich,
and represents Tomsky as perse-
cuted because of ''his opposition to
the turning Of the labor organiza-
tions, with their more than 11,000,-
900 members into part Of the gov
ernment apparatus" This in the
workers own country, where the
government is directly set up and
controlled by the workers and work.
ers' organizations run everything!
The American Labor Year Book
contains valuable lists and addresses
of American and foreign labor or
ganizations. 1t has much useful in
formation on the dates and places
of so-called "labor organizations"
1t is indexed.
The Communist movement has