The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-01-04
The Mutual eU>Helb' Racket

plan provides for the exchange of
goods and services in exchange for
goods Or services by outsiders.
This means that the outsiders will
purchase from the System, in
preference to purchasing from
regular commercial concerns, but
only if the Systems prices are
lower, since otherwise there will be
no incentive for outsiders to trade
with the System.
However, commercial business
will endeavor to meet this new
competition by also reducing prices.
To reduce prices they will reduce
costs, which means reducing wages.
On the other hand, if the Associa-
ton decided not to have dealings
of any nature with outsiders, this
method also would increase the
number of unemployed For the
sponsors admit that the relief fund
makes up approximately per cent
of the retail sales. This will mean
that many workers who are now
employed, providing even the few
necessities purchased by the I'M
employed, will be likewise forced
into the ranks of the jobless. The
process does not end there, since
it represents the destruction of a
market. The process is like roll
ing SNOWFALL which constantly
grows in size.
WHERE is the control to be lodged
W in such an organizations On
this point the report of the COM
mittee is plain enough. Control is
to rest in the hands of the original
sponsors of the scheme: THE gov
erning powers of the Association
will be vested in Council, two
thirds of which will be self-per-
petuating and the remaining third
elected by majority vote of the
members of the Association in good
standing. The Council will be COM
posed in the first instance, of the
incorporates who will have the
power to determine the size Of the
Council"
AAI OOGCAI AllSOl PO4abOAD bl1AAO 4C-
tain for themselves, forever, con-
troll over the organization. 1t would
be difficult to find a more brazen
dictatorship over the working class
| In ordinary life an employed
worker at least knows how much
his miserable wages will be at the
end of the week In the Associa-
ton, however, even this is denied
him. The membership card which
every unemployed worker must
sign, reads as follows: II under
stand that the Exchange is not an
employer and makes no guarantee
beyond the right to fair share
in the goods and services available
as a result of the labor of other
members like myself" He is thus
forced to accept, in advance, what
ever the Council decides is a fair
share. Ee himself Eas no say
since the determining vote is cast
by the self perpetuating incorpora-
tors.
How do the sponsors gain from
the operation of this unemploy-
ment racket? First, they will be in
control of an immense organization
immense since unemployment
becomes an increasingly normal
feature of capitalism Second, the
Association intends "to offer" as
we saw, the labor Of members at
current wage scales in exchange
for bonds of going concerns, thus
enabling the unemployed TO risk
labor against industry's promise TO
pay Let us suppose that the
method proves a success: that
through the labor of its members
4 the System asduires control of
various factories. The factories
will not belong to the workers who
had shaved in them, but to the As
ISOLATION which alone determines
what each worker will get. Unem-
ployed workers may later acquire
jobs, but the factories will still be
controlled by the incorporators.
PURCHASE OF SCHEME
The main purpose of this scheme
is, as we have seen, to place the
entire burden of relief on the backs
of the unemployed workers them
selves, and to prevent their mill
tant struggles for real relief and
for unemployment insurance.
Wherever such schemes have
been tried the workers have suf-
fered. In Seattle, the workers re-
Gently have had their relief from
the nty cut in half as the result of
their too great reliance on self
help labor exchange project. On
the other hand, militant struggles
for relief have improved relief con-
ditions of the unemployed, as in
Chicago, where demonstration OF
approximately $4,000 nlarchers
logged ths CITY ad.ntpist yEtton to