The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-09-27
The STRUGGLE
TO ORGANIZE
LONCSHOREMEN
MWIU Fighting Many
Shortcomings
Philadelphia, Pa.

Daily Worker
The struggle Of the Marine Work
ers' Industrial Union to organize
the Iongshoremen on the Philadel-
phia waterfront, to be properly I'M
derstood and appreciated, is strug-
gle one must have participated IN.
A multitude of obstacles have had
to be overcome.
The longshoremen at first were
suspicious as to the intentions and
purpose of our organizers. They
have been fooled so many times by
various outfits of various shades
and colors. They have had the l,
w. w. and now last, but not least,
the I. L. A. This suspicion had to
be overcome. The confidence of the
men had to be gained. How sue
cessful our union has been in this
respect the membership figures
show. In the month of May there
was a membership of less than
100. Now, five months later, the
membership register shows the 900
mark has been reached and we are
on the road of reaching the 1000
mark.
Bitter Fight.
To reach this. stage, the union
and it's organizers have had to
fight many obstacles. 1t has been
a fight all the way. Gangsters and
police have been used by the bosses
and their allied unions. Meetings
have been broken up, organizers
jailed. Gangsters and gorillas have
had to be fought on their own
ground and have been met and
given the same medicine they in
tended for our union and our Or
ganizers.
Stool-pigeons and agent provoca-
teurs had to be dealt with and
isolated. Our enemies were every
where, but the workers gradually
came over to our side and today
the majority of the 5000 longshore-
men on the Philadelphia water
front have learned who are their
friends and who are their enemies.
Fighting Shortcomings.
Many were the shortcomings and
mistakes made by our union, but
we have gradually learned to over
come the more serious Of these and
we are now on the eve of entering
struggle which will mean, if sue
cessfully fought and won, complete
control of the waterfront by the
members of our union. We are
preparing to enter this struggle
with clean-cut program of action.
A program that has been unani-
mously accepted and endorsed by
the recent rank and file conference.
A program that demands equal pay
for equal work all along the water
front. We demand that the hiring
of men be done out of the union
hall on the rotary system, thereby
insuring an equal distribution of
work and doing away with the pre-
vailing system of syndicate" sales
of work. In short, this must be
fight to the bitter end, fight that
can only cease when all graft has
been done away with, fight that
can only cease when Polly Baker
and his allies, the /. w. w. have
been swept off the waterfront for
good. Let each and all understand
that the Marine Workers Indus
trial Union is on the Philadelphia
waterfront to stay and there is
room for that union and that union
only. All others must go.
Polly Baker, Boss Tool.
The conditions sanctioned by the
I. l.. A. today are unbearable. Men
shape up" in the morning for
work. Polly Baker is we'll pro-
tected by police and gorillas. The
boss picks his men. One here, one
there. Polly works in close collab-
Grafton with the boss. The few
favored ones get the jobs, the rest
are left to starve. Those that are
picked are now loaded on to trucks
like so many heads of cattle.
Packed like sardines and shipped
off to the various docks and piers.
The pay, however, does not COM
mence until the arrival at the place
of work. A ship may move from
one pier to another, taking three
or four hours doing so. All this
time the longshoremen must stay
on board, but they receive no pay
for doing so. Those are some of
the conditions under which they
work. Those are the conditions
sanctioned by the I. L. A. Those