The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-02-20
Picketing Spreads
DreSSmakerS Strike
Observation-Disclosures
from the Police
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE>

NCONIlN u ED ErtOM y AOE ONnJ
cares about improving their condi-
ton. The unbelievable hardships in
the shop, the ferocious speed-up sys-
TENS, the Sc and So weekly wages, the
workday of ten and twelve hours, the
immediate firing if the slightest OBJ
lection is raised to this terrific eX-
ploitation, the misleadership and cor
ruption of the I. L. G. Wall COM
bine to make the workers suspicious
of everyone who offers them a way
of Kidding themselves of their slavery.
This hard Learned scepticism, how
ever, is being overcome gradually, as
is evidenced everywhere in the
suburbs by the increasing number of
shops that are joining the strike I'M
der the leadership of the Needle
Trades Workers Industrial Union, af-
filiated with the Trade Union Unity
League.
Forced Labor in Needle Trades.
In Harlem and the Bronx, where
forced labor, in all its ugly nakedness,
f1ourishes as Ham Fish would like it
to flourish in Soviet lumber camps,
enthusiasm never before seen in a
New York dress strike prevails. A
large proportion of the dressmakers
in these shops are foreign-born work.
erS who have not yet learned to speak
English. These dressnakers, many of
whom earn less than SIS week for
so hours of work in the dingiest Of
.sweatshops, are overjoyed when work
ers who speak their language call on
them to strike against their slavery.
Girls are singing on the picket lines,
and when they return to the strike
headquarters at 2011 Third Avenue
for rest. more often than not they will
start dancing to the tune of the
wheezy union victrola.
$3.50 for Four Days Work.
One of the shops which struck yes
terday in Harlem-the Hudson Dress
Co.-was comprised largely of Italian
workers who are forced to work their
first week for nothing and then are
paid So week. BY dint of tremend-
Gus speed-up, they sometimes earn as
much as 81 week. One dressmaker
showed a check to members OF the
rank and file strike committee which
is now on file in the union Office. The
check, for four days work, amounted
to $3.50.
Harlem and Bronx dressmakers
marched to the mass meetings yester-
day of strikers in Bryant Hall, Irv-
ing Plaza and Manhattan Lyceum.
The meetings were replicas of those
held on Tuesday, when strikers
crowded the halls, stairways. sat on
the floor and even in adjoining rooms
where they couldn't see the speakers.
The strikers responded enthusiastic
ally to addresses by labor leaders and
to artists, singers and speakers pro-
vided by the John Reed Club, Artef
and other cultural groups. Entertain
ment of a similar order will be pro-
vided at the mass meetings in these
halls next Tuesday and Thursday.
Mass Picketing Next Tuesday.
Workers all over the city are ex-
pected to engage in the mass picket
ing that will start next Tuesday. The
thousands of unorganized dressmakers
in the industry make it imperative
chat mass picketing inspire these
workers with the courage to walk out.
The union is begging for workers to
undertake this duty, for it is no exag-
geration to say that this strike could
be won in week if the enthusiasm
OF the strikers were matched by the
number of workers, of all trades. on
the picket lines. The militancy of
the picketing throughout the city is
well exemplified by an incident that
occurred in the West Thirties late
yesterday afternoon.
A couple of detectives, Spying a
girl-picket talking to scab, placed
her under arrest and began to march
her toward the police station. Some
nearby strikers wrested the girl away
from the detectives, and when some
more police came to the aid of their
fellow-thugs more pickets came to
The aid Of the arrested picket and res
cued her, this time permanently.
Workers Free Girl Picket.
In Brooklyn, too, girl strikers dis
ungushed themselves on the picket
line. When a cop ordered a girl to
stop picketing her shop at 40 Sieeel