The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-10-18
On the Anti>Germ1an Boycott

WILLIAM GREEN, in what the press termed "an
nlpassioned speech at the closing session of the
A, F. Of L. convention declared against Hitlo-s alb
solute humiliation of Of the finest trade union
movements ever established and urged a boycott of
German goods This action came at the close of
convention in which the A. F. of L. bureaucrats lined
up behind Roosevelt, johnson and Perkins for the
carrying through Of fascist program in the Unieed
States
1T is not enough under extraordinary conditions
of this kind said Mr.. Green, that we merely voice
protest That is not sufficient because it carries
little weight but l say to you, my friends that if
declare that the people Of America will refuse to
buy your goods and ride your ships then
strike at the heart of this QFazD terror
This seemingly radical action is quite clearly a
concession to the powerful an-Nazi sentiment among
the millions Of American workers. Local unions Of
the A. F. of L. have adopted hundreds Of resolutions
against Hitlers fascist terror Many thousands Of a.
T. of L. .lbers have joined with other workers IN
der Communist leadership in protest meetings and in
militant demonstrations before German consulates
Three protest resolutions found their way even into
an A. F. of L. convention. It was this mass indigna-
ton Of the workers and their pressure that caused
the A. F. of L, leaders to act
This action though, is not an effort on the part
of the A. F. Of L. leaders to arouse powerful mass
movement against fascism. It is an attempt to lead
the growing anti-fascst protest movement up blind
alley
states, that if We declare that the people of
America will refuse TO buy your goods and ride on
your ships then strike the heart OF this ter
ror The struggle against fascsm is not so simple
The proposal 10 boycott German goods is petty
bourgeois in its class roots. It is the method of strg
gle which arises in The mind Of the small store
keeper and small manufacturer, a method which per-
mits them to combine their anti-fascist sentiments
with increased profits for themselves BY keeping out
German goods they hope to find greater market for
their own goods. At the same time such purely pas
sve forms of resistance" to fasctsm conform to the
characteristic petty bourgeois fear of militant effective
actions of the workers.
Now, however the boycott movement against Ger
man goods also fits into The world struggle Of the
separate imperialst powers for markets The United
States government for example representing the big
gest Wall Street bankers and the biggest manufacttr-
es and merchants, has quarrel with Hters fascist
Germany In many ways it has supported Hitler
American bankers supplying the Hitler regime
with funds and credit Under the MIRA the Wall
Street bankers have started on a course which pre-
pares the way for the fascist suppression of the Amer
lean workers movement as Hitler suppressed the
trade unions in Germany They have no funda-
mental difference with Hitler. Yet American imperial
ists or other nperalists not adverse to decline
in German foreign trade.
GREEN'S imprisoned speech" for the boycott there
fore, fits very well into American petty bourgeois
and even imperialst policy
This fast becomes especially evident when It Is
noted that Green proposes no action other than
purely passive failure to purchase German goods He
doesn't even visualize mass campaign against Ger
many on the boycott issue, just boycott resoution
Mr.. Green proposes that we refuse to buy German
goods Oh ride on German ships Why doesn't Mr. Green
propose an aggressive drive against German shipping?
Why don't the A. r. of l.. leaders start drive on
the waterfront to organize strikes on German ships,