The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-08-11
PA. MINERS ACT FOR DEFENSE AND
SUPPORT OF HARLAN STRIKERS

of the coal capitalists for an inten-
sification of the bosses policy of |
still further cutting the wages of
the workers and introduction of
more speed-up methods.
OF course the U. M. w. A. Off
Gals are loud in their praise Of this
new proposal Of the bosses. This is
because they are simply a part of
the operators organization for ex-
plotting the miners. These betray-
ers are working day and night to
break the present strike; they are
signing agreements for wage-cuts
and wage scales far below those even
in open-shop mines. These rabid
opponents of unemployment insur
ance Cike the operators and John
L. Lewis propose that 100000 more
miners be driven from the industry.
The U. M. w. leaders are fully in
step with every proposal of the
bosses for the enslavement Of the
miners.
The proposed scheme Of govern
ment control is an attempt to turn
the whole coal industry over to few
big companies and to give a govern
ment guarantee of their profits at
the expense of the workers. The
operators and U. M. w. A. officials
although viciously opposing unen-
ployment insurance and all forms of
immediate relief for the strikers and
unemployed, are dividing $270000Oo
from the government for this pur-
pose. If put through 1t will mean
not only the driving of fresh masses
of miners into actual starvation, but
even more aggressive suppression by
the government of every attempt OF
the miners to improve their condi-
tons Not content with the present
government assistance in the shape
of state police, injunctions, deputy
sheriffs, ETC., the operators and
their fascist U. M. w. A. tools are
maneuvering so that every struggle
of the miners for improved condi-
tions can be treated only as treason
able, and is to be repressed by the
full force of direct government
| pressure.
The National Miners Union warns
the miners against this new attempt
to perpetuate and extend starvation
and slavery in the coal industry. The
N. M. U. calls upon the miners to
place their reliance in their union,
the N. M. u, and to carry forward
the struggle unitedly for its demands.
This convention endorses the de-
mands of the present strike in West
ern Pennsylvania, Ohio and North
ern West Virginia for SIS cents a
ton, union acknowledgment, payment
for dead work, recognition Of the
union, equal rights for Negroes
/ youth, women and unemployed min
ers, abolition of the government ter
rorisrn, etc. We also endorse the
general demands of the Nationa
Miners Conference for the 6-hou
day, unemployment insurance, aboli
ton of company stores and com
pany towns, abolition of the speed
up, abolition of the check-off, etc
The National Miners Union anc
the Central Eank and File Strikt
Committee have repeatedly Offered
to confer with the operators on thu
basis of the present strike demands
It is the bosses who have refused tt
confer, not us. Rumors and state
ments to the contrary, are lies, anc
are designed to confuse the work
ers. 1t is in the fight for such de-
mands and not in schemes Of trusti
fication, naturalization and govern
ment control, that the miners WI
find relief now, and in the abolition
of capitalism by the working elias
that final freedom will be won from
capitalist exploitation and slavery
We endorse the program of the Ma
tional Miners Conference, whicl
states:
eve can and must compel the op
orators to grant the immediate de
mands of the miners. Our answe
to the bosses plea of the crisis i
the coal industry is the organization
of the struggle Of the miners, to
gether with all workers, towards tn
breaking of the rule of the capital
ist class, the confiscation of the Goa
mines and all factories, the abolitio
. of exploitation, which can only b
achieved through the establishment
of the ruiz of the workers, along tn
path of the workers in the Sovie
Union"
Miners, fight on Stand togethe
in unbreakable solidarity. Hold soil
, and strengthen the strike! Sprea
9 the strike and winl