The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-02-24
By HERBERT BENJAMIN

(Herbert Benjamin, National
Organizer of the Unemployed
Councils, is making a tour of
number of principal midwest
cities. He will write short articles
summarizing the situation of the
unemployed in the cities he visits.
This is the first of these articIes)
IN rapid succession, one after an.
4 other of the great automobile
plants OF Detroit are being tied up
by a spreading mass revolt against
the hunger offensive of the pow
ertul automobile manufacturers
who rule this city. Strike fever is
spreading. Even the American
Federation of Labor misleaders,
who have done their utmost to
convince the masses that STRIKES
in periods of economic crisis are
impossible" are now talking strike.
OF course their purpose in pretend
ing to favor strikes is the same as
their previous attempts to discour-
age strikes.
WAVE OF STRIKES
But the masses are not only talk
ing strike. They are Strikingi
One day it is the Murray Body:
then Motor Products; Briggs, and
then the Hudson plant. Nor is the
strike fever confined to the auto
industry. Within fifteen minutes
reports of two strikes come over
the phone of the office of the
Trade Union Unity League; first
it is a stove factory; two depart
ment stores!
THE workers want leadership for
their struggles. They turn to
those who have been urging, Or
ganizing and conducting the fight
IN resistance to hunger relief doles
and starvation wages. The most
bitter and skillful enemies of the
workers are called in to defeat these
struggles These succeed for
time in creating confusion in the
ranks of the strikers: to behead
the strike for a time, to divide the
unemployed from the employed.
But even with the help of the A.
F. of L., Socialist Party, 1. w. W,
Proletarian Party combined, the
employers are unable for long to
dam the tidal wave of struggle
against Wage-CutS. Reluctantly.
step by step, the employers re-
treat. One after another, they post
notices of wage increases not only
in the plants that have already
been struck, but in all other plants.
HOW ABOUT
THE UNEMPLOYED?
Are they clamoring at the fac
tory gates for an opportunity to
Scab? No, indeed They are at
the gates; but they are there with
their banners and placards. They
are there to stand shoulder to
shoulder with the strikers in de-
ternlined action to keep scabs out
of the plant Even when, for the
moment, company agents combined
with 1. w. w. leaders succeed in
taking over leadership of the strike,
and even when these decide that
''no outsider shall be allowed to
pickett the tobless workers under
the leadership of the Unemployed
Councils persist in staying on the
line. At all hours of the day and
throughout the night; in sub-zero
weather they continue on guard.
TILE unemployed, led by their
\ Councils, realize that these
strikes are part Of the general war
against hunger. They are ready
to participate in that war no mat
ter on what front it may be con-
Quoted at the given moment.
They are there to give encourage
ment, not only to the striking auto
workers, but to workers of all in
dustries. They are there to de-
clare "Organize and Fight Against
Wage-Cuts! The Unemployed viii
Not Scab--They'll Help You Fight
and Win!"
HIGH TIME FOR THE
FIGHT IN DETROIT
The fight has not begun too
soon in Detroit. In fact we've
been little slow there for awhile.
Consider The welfare (racket)
experts testified before the LaFol-
lette Costigan Senate Committee
that only "18 to So per cent Of the
unemployed are on the relief rolls
OF the various principal cities" But
in Detroit conditions are even worse
Ballenger, the Welfare Director Of
Detroit. boasts chat Only 10 nsr