The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-08-06
By J. SCOTT

ssWHAT We need in the present
w crisis is firner conservatism,
What we do not want is radical
Ism" This statement was the cen
trail point in a speech by Sidney
Hilman at a joint banquet of bosses
and bureaucrats in the Royal York
(MontreaD, as the bosses and bu-
reaucrats prepare to smash the
rank and file revolt and put over
the promised wage cut.
1.-THE Amalgamated will sign an
agreement in the Montreal clothing
market that will encourage bust
ness. This is no time to strike and
We will supply the necessary work.
ers to carry out this agreement"
Is the frank, strikebreaking, wage
policy of Banker Hillman.
He assured the Montreal clothing
employers that the Amalgamated is
a firmly intrenched business institu-
ton, with solid foundation in
banks, housing corporations and
other business connections. No one
can break the An1algalnated, is his
boast, as he promises strike break
ers to the S & G Boys Clothing
and Friedman Clothing Company,
while the workers prepare to strike
against the rotten conditions forced
upon them through the class COL
liberation, no-strike policy of the
Analganlated.
The broad and rapid sweep of the
reUolt of the rank and file against
the Hillnan traitors contains many
lessons, exposes many weaknesses
for the Party and the revolutionary
trade union movement, not only in
Canada but in the United States.
While the theological basis for the
revolt was laid by the G. P. and
the Workers Unity League of Can
ada through years of agitation,
struggles and sacrifice, yet at the
moment of the revolt they we're
taken completely unawares, and
found themselves in isolation, and
before they were ready to step into
the situation with program and
policy of struggle for lettering the
conditions of the workers, which
was the real cause of the revolt,
the movement had been hooked up
again organizationally with reform
ism by afiliation with the A1l-Can-
adam Congress of Labor.
N. I. l. U. Gives Leadership
The Needle Trades Industrial
Union of Canada is giving ideologi-
cal leadership (the workers ask for
this leadership and the organiza-
tional gains are made not by us
but by retornlism. Why? Emu
merated are the fundamental causes
for this contradiction:
~ The feeling among our COM
rades and immediate followers
that the strongly entrenched
Amalgamated bureaucracy can
only be fought against and de-
feated by general strike, and
that the workers were so terror
lied that a revolt at this time
was not possible.
(3) Loose, painless disconnected
general propaganda substituted
for prepared everyday Jimmy
Higgins activity around concrete
shop demands and program of
action.
az Failure to build the Party
and the Y. G. L.
81 Failure to draw these work
ers into the general struggle of
the workers, for immediate relief,
for noncontributory unemployed
insurance, against Benefits star
walton program.
(6) Failure to expose reformism.
The result of this wrong approach
was isolation. The revolt actually
took place without the knowledge
II the Party, N. T. l.. U. OF
the W. U. L. The inarticulate,
terror stricken workers suddenly.
overnight, became articulate and
active They moved very fast. They
revolted against one bureaucracy
and affiliated with another, and
came to us to give them policy,
program and leadership. 1t would
oe mistake to think that the e.
'olt was spontaneous. For weeks
he revolt was being organized
through number of secret meet
ngs held in houses, led by a few
workers; some Of them undoubtedly
lad connections with the A. G. G. !
- But we were oblivious to what