The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-04-12
By SOL REINSTEIN.


THERE is not an industry in the country
where the workers have as many unions as
in the shoe industry. All these unions were
either crushed by the heavy blows of the bosses
because on a craft basis they were transformed
by corrupt officialdom into instruments in the
hands of the bosses against the workers. Ma
turaly such unions" were soon abandoned by
the workers.
The Boot and Shoe
The record of the Boot and Shoe workers
is of open strike-breaking. More than once
the shoe workers revolted against this PREACHER
Gus outfit. In Brockton in 1928 three thousand
shoe workers went out on strike and fought
for several months to rid themselves of the
Balm and Lovely clique.
The Boot and Shoe than showed its real
color and with help of hired gangsters and
the state cossacks they drove the workers back
to the shops, placed them in Local "O' and
left them with only the privilege of accepting
wake cuts and paying dues to cover the sal
aries of these high-paid scab herders. The
"real" activity displayed by these strike break
ers was last year in the Boston and Chelsea
shoe strikes.
For II years the shoe workers of Boston
suffered under the iron rule of Balm and Love
ly. Conditions were miserable, wage cut after
wage cut, vicious spy and black listing sys-
tenn worked out by the bosses and the takers
of the Boot and Shoe. A worker could not
tell in the evening whether he would have
job in the morning. The women in the shops
were forced by the bosses and foremen to
prostitution if they wanted to maintain their
jobs. The business agent of the "union" OPEN
ly worked hand in hand with the bosses to
bring down the wages of the workers to the
lowest level. When the workers of Local 229
Of Boston dared to elect business agent who
was not liked by Charles Balm the charter of
the local was revoked and the 1000 members
placed in local co." There was combination
Of three, bosses, Boot and Shoe and the State
board of Arbitration.
$1,000 Strike.
In the beginning of April, 1925 the shoe
workers of Boston and Chelsea decided to no
longer endure such intolerable conditions and
$4,000 went out on strike. Balm, chief faker
of the B. and S., toured the country and spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure
scabs to break the strike. They hired gang
sters, paid the police to terrorize the pickets,
worked with the bosses to get the most vicious
injunctions, sent many of the active strikers
to Jail, and with the help of the traitors of
the Omitted" who were the official leaders of
the strike, they forced the workers back to
work, under worse conditions than they had
before.
The Betrayals of the UNITED"
The Omitted" outfit although pretending to
fight the Boot and Shoe, followed exactly in
the footsteps of the B. and S. They bitterly
fought against all proposals for militant strike
tactics introduced by the members of the Trade
Union Unity League. They, like all the labor
takers, divided the workers into craft locals,
they too depended upon the State Board Of
Arbitration to solve the problems Of the shoe
workers. They have in the most shameful man.
ner collaborated with the bosses by signing
stipulation agreements to send the workers
back to work without any improvement in con-
ditions, thereby demoraizing and breaking the
ranks of the strikers.
Like all corrupt job seekers the Henry and
Meade outfit spent tens of thousands of dol
lars for their personal purposes when thou
sands Of workers and their families were starv