The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-09-01
Solidarity Day Versus Labor Day

ale, and the suitably inscribed gold watch they
are invariably given by the gang that betrayed
the British General Strike of 1926. And inter
national solidarity is also Okay Matthew Wolf
contends, If it is with the right folks-say with
an international committee of bankers profess
sional patriots and Russian White Guards to
fight the Soviet Union
Labor officials also love the September legal
holiday because it gives them chance to speak
on the same platform with Tammany politicians,
Republican ward bosses, racketeers bankers ma
jors and frocked-c coated preachers Labor Day
sermons are quite the style) and other respec-
table people representing the broad interests"
of the Community. The idea is to sit down
after the speaking and dig into a good feast
with these representatives of capital and get
them to adopt an enlightenment policy" toward
labor This usually means entering into an
agreement to install an A. F. of L. union to speed
up the workers instead of company union
Typical of Labor Day eloquence this year Is
the printed speech of A. F. Whitney president of
the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and
considered one of the most progressive" labor
leaders in the country. He heads the brother
hood of which Deportation" Doak was recently
the legislative agent
Through the Federated Press, which gives him
three whole pages, Mr.. Whitney exhibits his
"progressivism". Under the title OF Labor Day
of 1881" he starts off with "shudder at the
thought of the approaching winter, following
this by kindly references to the common peo-
ple", term which he uses in referring to the
workers He tells us that 'if the capitalists had
adopted an enlightened policy" things would be
all right today. But little later he informs us
that some Of the capitalists have already adopted
such policy At this point he breaks into lit
eral panegyric the well-publicized stagger
system recently adopted as an advertising stunt
to sell more Kellogg's corn flakes and Squibbs
tooth paste. Whitney showers these firms with
his unqualified praise although, If he is not an
idiot, he knows that both are 100 per cent anti
union and that militant workers handing out
shop papers near their doors are arrested and
slugged by the police. He does admit that the
productivity of these firms has gone up with
the cutting of hours Of work, but does not tell us
that clever Speedup is responsible for this fact
as well as for the increased profits tina both firms
have made under he 6-hour day. Nor does he
state anywhere that wages in both of these COM
panies, are way below the amount required for a
family to live even minimum health and
decency" level
But Mr. Whitney goes farther and in a Polly
anic tone worthy of White House press re-
lease says, 'I do believe that out of this depres-
sion will come better day for the masses who
TOLL Why is he SO sanguine of the future?
Because the capitalists, presumably of their own
free will, and inspired by Squibb and Kellogg
are going to come to@a "fairer valuation of la
boris services" g e. b
There is not one note of struggle in the whole
piece. The Greens and VOLS could do no better
than Whitney in their policy sof sellout and
retreat. q a.
h This is typical Labor Day tripe. Perhaps it
will be little more demagosic and progressive
sounding this year as the workers are more
aroused than ever and the bureaucrats must
feed them on words. %4fE
However, words, no matter how nice sound
ing they may be, will not fool the workers this
Labor Day Labor Day this year will be cele-
brated by the workers Of this city in another
manner. Labor Day this year will be celebrated
as SOLIDARITY DAY-solidarity day with the
striking miners and textile workers It will be
celebrated by calling on workers throughout the
country to support these strikers in their strug-
gle to build powerful militant unions.
The workers OF this city will set the pace for
workers throughout the country by celebrating
SOLIDARITY DAY with<a huge festival and
demonstration at Starlight Amusement Park in
the Bronx. SOLIDARITY DAY in New York
this year will be real Labor Day.
standing by the International Labor Defense be-
cause they know that Walter White and his
National Association for the Advancement Of
Certain People" are not their sincere friends"
as Mr. White would have them believe, but the
tool Of the imperialist oppressors to divert the
Negro masses from the necessary str7irrle foy