The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-28
Marin Men.
Fight Betrayal.
Of Dock Strike.
September Conference
Will Act Against
SelI-Out Heads
BY HAYES JONES

In all PROBABILITY Jne breacnery
Of the true leaders of labor" W.
Green, Ryan, Sharrenberg, Kidwell
and Casey, will accomplish the job
that the police, troops, thugs and
strikebreakers failed to do.
Through fraud and trickery these
misleaders of labor may force the
Iongshoremen and seamen on the
West Coast to accept the strike
breaking Roosevelt Arbitration
Board and abandon the strike.
The retreat of the misleaders in
this situation gives still greater sig
nificance to the National United
Action Conference which the Ma
rine Workers Industrial Union has
called fer Sept. and 2, in Balti-
more.
A deep resentment runs through
the minds of the marine workers
on both coasts at this rank sell-out
by the union officials" from Green
down to the local takers in San
Francisco, Portland and Seattle. If
the government mediation board
does what it apparently intends to
do-assign the international Sea-
mems Union leaders the right to
represent" the seamen and collect
dues from them without the consent
or vote of the seamen themselves,
this resentment is bound to grow
still more.
1t is a foregone conclusion that
the Arbitration Board will not solve
any of the deep lying economic de-
mands of the workers on the West
Coast. The government has stood
fast by the shipowners from the
start Of the struggle. 1t has per-
mitted open violation of its own
laws to clear scab-manned ships
without proper crews.
Some slight concessions in wages
may be granted. But the chief need
of the longshoremen "a rotary sys-
tenn of hiring, and control of hiring
by the men themselves, will not
be granted by any government ar
bitrstion board. Neither will an
actual union shop be granted
In fact. if the I. L. A. officials
present the workers demands, they
will not even fight for these de-
mands of the longshoremen. They
will demand a closed shop con-
sisting of the right to collect dues
from any man the shipowners and
boss stevedores choose to hire. We
know this from the experience on
the Clyde Mallory docks in New
York, where the scabs sent in to
break the strike were allowed mem
bership in the I. L. A. and given
jobs on the dock.
The seamen on the West Coast
also realize the deep betrayal prac-
ticed on them by Scharrenburg and
other officials of the International
Seamen's Union They recognize
the part these officials took in raid
ing even their own hall in Seattle to
Jail the militant members of their
own union, and compel arbitration
of the strike issues.
The chief demand of the West
Coast workers on their union Of
ficisls was the demand for action
on the East Coast. I. L. A. and I.
S. U. officials consistently refused
to issue call for East Coast sup
port. In fact, they ordered their
members to scab on the West Coast
strikers,
The strikers resented this, but
could not force the issue. Through
the M. w. I. u, which exerted every
effort to get action on .he East
Coast, the strikers appealed for sup
port from seamen and longshore-
men in Atlantic ports. This was
not successful because of the sab
otage of the A. F. of L. officials.
The National United Action Con-
ference will give the answer to all
these problems and demands. The
conference will organize united ac-
ton of the longshoremen and sea-
men on all coasts of the United
States. 1t will give the longshore-
men on East Coast docks, nucleus
around which to build an opposition
to fight Ryan's machine
and coordinate action in the diff
ferent ports.