The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-12-15
Program of Dressmakers'
United Front Published

NEW YORK. When the. delegation
from the United Front Committee
for Preparing a United Strike of AL
Dressmakers, under rank and file
leadership and including members OF
the International Ladies Garment
Workers, of the Needle Trades Work
ers Industrial Union, and the unor-
ganized dressmakers, came to the
Committee of 25 of Local %, L. L. G.
w. They proposed the following pro-
gram. The Committee of 25 refused
to consider it, and the program is
now made public with an appeal to
all dressmakers to support it. 1t reads
"The United Front Conference of
shop delegates held at Webster Hall
November 18th, authorized our COM
mittee to come to the members of
Local % to propose a program on the
basis of which to unite all the dress
makers in the shops in preparation
for a real strike in the dress in
duStry under rank and file leadership.
"The conditions in the dress in
dustry during the past few years, as
result of the artificial division
created in the ranks of the workers
by the officials of the International,
have been reduced to an intolerable
state where it has become absolutely
impossible for any worker in the
dress industry to earn bare living.
The low wages, long hours, and mis-
cradle sweat shop conditions are con-
tinuously being worsened with result
ant mass unemployment, misery and
starvation for the dressmakers.
'It is becoming more evident that
so long as the ranks of the dress
makers are divided into hostile camps,
there can be no real struggle to i'm
prove the conditions of the workers
and to organize the thousands of
Negro, Spanish, Italian and young
workers who have come into the
trade in recent years.
1.-THE experiences of the dressmakers
during the past few years have dem
onstrated that conditions cannot be
improved through fake strikes en-
gineered by the bosses together with
the leaders of the International, and
that the strike conducted by the In
dustrial Union to improve the con-
ditions of the workers did not en-
brace a broad enough mass of workers
to bring about change in the con-
ditions of the vast majority of the
dressmakerS.
Both the agreements of the In
ternational and the Industrial Union
expire at the beginning of the next
season, and the bosses under the
excuse of hard times will attempt
to even further reduce the conditions
of the dressmakers.
Must Get Unity
1.-THE shop delegate conference,
after thoroughly discussing the sit
uation, has come to the conclusion
that every effort must be exerted to
bring about unity in the ranks of the
workers as the first prerequisite for
a real struggle to improve the con-
ditions of the dressmakers and do
away with the long hours, low wages,
misery and starvation in the dress
trade.
THE committee authorized by the
shop conference came to the men,
bers of Local % with this program
for unity. The mass response that
the committee received shows that
the members of Local %, just as the
thousands of dressmakers outside OF
the international, realize that only
through unity and strike under the
rank and file leadership can we hope
to improve our conditions.
THE administration of Local %
which was forced by the pressure of
the workers to admit our committee,
has not perrpitted the workers pre-
sent to discuss the united front pro-
gram and has shifted this most i'm
portant matter to committee, thus
proving that the admission of our
committee was merely a manouever
and not a sincere desire to bring
about unity in the ranks of the
dressmakers.
Judging by the previous actions OF
the administration, it is evident that
they will seek through all sorts OF