The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-02-09
from the Pamphlet "The Church and the
Workers" Published by the international
Publishers Price 10 centS)


Publishers. Price 10 centS)
CHURCHES can always be expected to take the
" side Of the employers against the workers
during strikes For money speaks. The employ
ers give the property build the churches, hire
the ministers, pay their salaries and take care
of other church expenses. They dominate the
churches and the clergymen completely and use
them as they do the schools and school teachers
to develop loyalty to the capitalist class. The
zeal Of clergymen In defeating strikes is, how
ever, usually more than that of persons who rec
ognise that they must act in certain way to
retain their jobs. They thoroughly identify
themselves with the capitalist class against the
workers.
During the textile strike in Lawrence, Mass,
led by the Iw.w. in 1912, church members
paraded against the strikers with placards read
ing, For God and for Countrywide Stars and
the Stripes Forever-the Red Flag Never" In
the great steel strike, led by William e. Foster in
1919, not one prominent minister in. the steel
region spoke out in favor OF the strikers while
many used as sermons the prepared publicity
material of the companies and brought pressure
to bear upon the workers to desert the strike
The churches betrayal of the masses was so OBJ
vious that after the strike the Interchurch World
Movement led by church liberals" to retain the
church's hold upon the masses published re-
port revealing the conditions that led to the
strike. This was promptly repudated by the
large church bodies who withdrew from the Or
ganization causing it to collapse and showing
more clearly than ever the control of the CAPT
talists over the churches. Another large report
openly supporting the employers, then is
sued endorsed by churchmen, denouncing the
first report as being financed by Soviet gold.
On the day the Seattle general strike was
called. in 1919, one hundred church delegates in
convention in Seattle in their attempt to stir up
sentiment against the strikers issued state
ment resolving that the church "deploreS the
spirit of strike and confusion; that it conmends
to all men the solution Of all social problems by
the simple application of the principles enunci-
ated by, and Of the spirit of the life and teach
ings Of Jesus Christ" Before and during the
strike the churches did everything in their power
to break the militant spirit of the workers by
urging their members not to participate They
violently denounced the leaders of the strike as
being in the pay of Moscow During the many
miners strikes in Pennsylvania and illinois, lead
ers of the strikers also had to meet the strenu-
GUS opposition of the priests and Protestant min
listers, who acted as strike breaking agents i'm
ploring the workers to return to the pits at re-
| duced wages.
! The Passaic strike in 1926 again Illustrates the
insidious role of the churches. Organizers found
| the local churchmen almost unanimously lined
over the foreign-born to break the strike The
| church liberals who came in to give some sup
port to the strike actually directed their efforts
! toward arriving at compromise through arbi-
tration Their plea was for the classes to come
together lin conference" procedure typical Of
liberal" church agencies. In order to counter
act the influence of the radical strike leaders in
| Passaic, the Department of Christian Social Ser
| vice Of the Episcopal Church supported by
large money contribution, special propaganda
campaign after the strike conducted by an ex-
| minister who later was put on the payroll of the
| American Federation of Labor
| In the textile strikes Of the South, the hostil-
| ity OF the churches toward the workers has been
most intense. Everywhere in the cotton mill
towns, such as Gastonia, Marion and Bessemer
| City, NC. local churches were active in under
mining the fighting spirit of the strikers. In
I Gastonia, the churchmen melted hostility against
the strikers among the more backward elements
Of the workers to break their ranks in their fight
| against the mill owners. They helped the en-
poyers to stir up mob hatred against the strikers
| which eliminated in the killing of Ella May
Wigg1nx an active union worker and mother of
! f1vs. IN Marion, NC, and DanviIle, Va. where
| the strikes were under conservative leadership
| local churches were nevertheless rabid against
| the strikers. In Marion they attempted to force
the deserton of 100 strikers by dropping them
from church membership. In both instances
| outside "liberaP church agencies entered end
furnici:ed strike relief to allay discoateat They
raised funds for this relief from among capital
lists on the grounds that they were preventing
violence and keeping the workers orderly
In the most recent strike Of the textile workers
workers. under the leadership of the National