The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-12

pose every splitting move Of the
reformists, we will win over the
mass of textile workers to our class
struggle program. This was proven
time and again during the ma
tional silk strike, when the strug-
gle policy of the N. T. w. U. was
accepted and carried out by the
masses Of silk and dye workers in
the independent Unions and in the
A. F. L.
In some instances this was car
ried through so effectively that the
A. F. L. leaders, who wanted to
split the ranks of the strikers, we're
forced to accept unity at the de-
term:ned insistence of their rank
and dIe. In the Paterson dye
strike, the A. F. L. rank and file
members forced their leaders to
come to the headquarters of the
National Textile Workers Union and
ask for speakers for their CA. F.
L. strike meeting. In Easton and
Allentown the A. F. L. rank and
file brought their leaders to our
strike meetings and forced them
to accept the proposals for a
united strike committee, and
united picket lines
Work in A. T. l..
1t is precisely because we did not
organize solid opposition group
within the A. F. L. t. fight for
the united front from the inside
while the N. T. w. U. hammered
away for it from the outside, that
We failed to crystalline this senti-
ment into definite organized action
along the entire strike front. lad
We accomplished this organized
united trent Of all workers involved
in the National Silk strike, the
strikers could have won a major
victory. For this strike was the
greatest tie-up of the silk industry
that ever took place in the United
States.
However the united front cannot
be conciliatory measure. 1t must
be measure Of uniting the work
ers on a broadcast scale in a COM
mon struggle for their daily de-
mands.
If it was necessary to apply the
united front tactics during the ma
tional silk strike, it is doubly neces-
sary to do so now after the strike.
The N. r. A. is intensifying its at
tacks on the living standards of
the textile workers It is increas-
ing the stretch-out in the mills to
an unprecendented degree, end
above all it is desperately trying
to smash any of the workers at
tempts to strike against their
grievances.
This unity of action is on the
order of the day in the shops in
Paterson. However the united
front in struggle will not be estab-
lished in Paterson unless we con-
-oiously build functioning opposi-
~1n movement within the A. F. L.,
end thus lead the workers in strug-
gle over the heads of the mislead-
ers (Schweitzer. Keller, and despite
the mo strike" agreement.
There is yet another phase of
our work in which we must develop
our united front, and that is in
the unemployed struggles of the
textile workers. The reforrnist
leaders are not concerned with the
mass lay-offs Of dye workers in the
Jersey dye plants. or in the cotton
mills in New Bedford. Our Union
must become the vanguard in the
struggle for Jobs or relief for these
textile workers, and thus win over
the rank and file Of the A. F. L
to our struggle program.
Build the Party
All this work cannot be accom-
plished unless we involve the en-
tire Pertv from top to bottom, in
every district, in active trade Union
work At the same time our COM
rades, and especially these party
members who are trade union Or
ganizers must understand that I'M
less they consistently and con-
ciously build the Party in every
struggle, the trade union movement
will be without backbone. There
will be a constant danger of the
reformists taking the leadership OF
the workers away from us.
Comrsd de Browder in his speech
at the 18th Plenum of the Central
Committee of our Party dealt with
this subject very thoroughly. He
said, In that mass union where
we did not recruit into the Party
we had no struggles for the Party
line, and that means that our lead
ership in that union is very weak
and precarious and we may lose
it at any moment"
That statement of Comrade
PROVIDERS has been proven in oul
practical work time and again. Let
us study it thoroughly, and apply
it daily in our mass work. thus
building a mass solid textile Union
and a stable active Communist
Party.