The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-04-22

eviction had already taken place at
125 Suffolk st.
The Branch makes immediate prep
aration to go down and put the fur
niture back.
Suffolk ST.! A narrow street tenn
ing with East Side life. A pile Of
furniture on the narrow pavement
and neighbors around talking.
The neighbors explain. It was a
family overdue two months in rent.
The father had just returned from
the hospital after an operation-m-
employed. The landlord terrorized his
wife and she went from the house
before the constable came. They were
nowhere in the neighborhood. .
Where they had gone to no one
knew.
The neighbors--bitter, Something
must be done!" They approach in
dividual members of the Unemployed
Branch and agree that something
should be done, meeting held, the
furniture put back. But
But the Unemployed Branch-"The
furniture can't be put back because
the door is locked. Well come back
later when the woman is around"
A cop comes around and pushes
the people; "Clear out"
What to do? A woman with a
child in her hand, seething with an
ger. But yet no move.
The immediate leaders of the I'm
employed Branch say they will wait
until the woman comes back, that the
police should be called up and a per-
init gotten for a meeting on the cor
nor, that a meeting could just as
well be held later in the evening with
a stand, flag and the whole para
phenalia. The neighbors look on
anxiously while the Unemployed
Branch members argue it out.
There is a feeling of uncertainty
as to what to do among the Branch
members. They had put mack fur
niture in SO precious cases but here
they were stuck. There was too much
of the professional furniture "back-
putters" talk. No thought of the
possibilities of taking immediate ad-
vantage of the sentiment of the SUI
folk Street worker-tenantS and Or
ganizing them right then and there.
That was the work of the Tenants
League-formalism, Experimentation
More arguing-why weren't these
matters of what to do, how to organ
ize a block, etc, taken up at the
meeting of the Unemployed Branch
The twenty-odd members of the
Unemployed Branch dissolve under
pressure of waiting .. . and nothing
is done. A tentative arrangement
is made for an evening meeting, but
it seems only to same the face of
the Branch. There is no heart in it.
The meetings of the Unemployed
Branch reflect this weakness, this
failure to know what to do quickly,
concretely, Systematically; to bring
results.
The leading members of the Branch
sincere, hard working workers, but
they d onot convey to the members
that they know exactly how things
are to be done, that they can organize
the work down to the smallest de-
tails. And it's the falling down on
the small details that accumulates
and makes the branch weak.
Will the first Investigations made
on East Fourth st. be followed up?
Will the weaknesses of that investi-
cation be corrected? Will the weak
nesses Of the failure to organize the
the tenants in Suffolk st. be correct
ed, in quick order and lessons de-
Quoted for future evictions? Will
there be more systematic planning of
the routine tasks, so there is no need
for undue friction on minor organ
national details, no squabblings over
what to do?
Real work can be done. The pos
sibilities at the very door of the I'm
employed Council are numerous.
The working class men and women
who tell of their misery, want to do
something for themselves, want to be
organized.
The members of the Unemployed
Branch are anxious to do work. But
the task Of the leadership is to plan
it, to check their work and errors, to
get down to the work of organizing
tenants in given neighborhoods. There
is no need for general flamboyant
phrases at the branch meetings, no
need to settle small organizational
details at the meetings. where organ
ization is the principal job.
There is no indication that the
Party apparatus knows what is going
on, checks on it, sees that the I'M
employed are clarified when they fall
down on work.
There is no connection between the
branch and the city Unemployed
Council, no living organic connection.
And there is need of a much closer
tie-up between the city leadership
and the branch leadership, between
the Party fraction and the unemploy-
ed branch. 1t is a weakness that
must be corrected at once. 1t must
be corrected nj order to rally these
hungry and starving workers in Mad
ison Square for the march to Union
Sniiare IN Nav let