The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-06-15
BY CHARLOTTE TopEs.

The chorus Of complete and un-
questioning approval of the National
Recovery Act which has come from
Green, Hillman and all the reaction
airy and reformist labor officials bears
out strikingly their role as employ
ers' agents. Hillman, president Of
the Amalgamated Clothing Workers
supports it without reservation. Green
calls it the most outstanding, ad-
vanced and forward looking legisla-
ton designed to promote economic
recovery thus far proposed" These
officials are eager and ready to be-
come the instruments of the govern
ment in working in united action"
with the employers for the Recovery"
program which as we have shown in
previous articles cannot be effected
without the most drastic attack on
the lives of the toiling masses.
Driving Down the Union Scale
Among the first acts of the A. F.
of L. officials, after endorsing the
Bill was to approach the bosses to
draw up codes covering working con-
ditions which aimed to impose the
Roosevelt hunger program with the
utmost speed and effectiveness. Emil
Rieve, socialist president Of the AM
erican Federation of Full Fashioned
Hosiery Workers and recent chair
man of the Continental Congress has
offered to reduce the union wage
scale to the level of the non-union
workers in the trade on the excuse
that it would enable the union boss
es to compete with non-rnion bosses
standards, and wages won by the
workers through their heroic strikes
are to be wiped out to save the union
bosses, and the wage scale of both
union and nom union workers are to
be reduced to a common low level.
The A. f. of L. Seeks More Control
The National Recovery Act offers
the A. F. of l.. officials an opportunity
to recover their grip over the work
-ers which is fast disappearing.
The A. F. Of l.. has suffered sharp
decline in membership during the
crisis. Illusions which have existed
among the rank and file have begun
to be shattered by the racketeering
and strike breaking policies which
they have pursued. The workers have
resented their open support Of the
program of the government and the
employers, especially their opposition
to Unemployment Insurance, their
close cooperation in the wage-cutting
program, their support, although pre-
faced by sham opposition, of the
forced labor camps establishing 81
a day wage rate and their endorse
ment of the sales tax.
These policies and their explosions
of the unemployed and other discrinl-
inatory practices have resulted in a
series of revoltS among large sections
of the rank and file. The per cap
tia taxes we're not rolling in with the
same speed as heretofore. The A. F..
of L. officials were on the way to be-
coming generals without armies.
Want to Smash Left Wing Unions
Under the National Recovery Bill,
they hope to obtain the necessary
government power and employers CO.
ercion to force thousands of workers
to join their unions in order to fasten
upon them the new hunger program.
At the same time they hope to smash
the militant left-wing unions and the
opposition groups in the A. F. Of l..
which endanger this program and
their control. This union wrecking
campaign has already started in the
N. Y. Fur Workers Section Of the
Needle Trades and the Trenton Doll
Workers. Chester Wright, publicity
writer for the misleaders, gives
typical call for organization:
ut will be up to the labor move
ment to claim the field by actually
occupying the field. If trade unions
occupy the field, no other organiza-
ton can get in. If we do not do
1t, then somebody else will do it,"
New Tricks to Fool Workers
The A. F. of L. which has avoided
campaigns, and which
has systematically excluded large sec
tions of the workers from their unions
has suddenly become interested In Or
ganizing the workers. Overnight, the