The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-31
Thomas on Frisco

IT is instructive to watch Norman Thomas
attempt to explain his position on the
recent Pacific Coast general strike.
He has, of course, his problems. He
must not risk losing the favor of the
masses. At the same time, he cannot risk
losing his ties with the officialdom of the
American Federation of Labor with William Green,
arch strike-breaker, at the head
His problems are further complicated by the
fact that he is the prepayment par excellence Of the
general strike as the weapon with which he prom
ises to stop imperialist war.
At the same time the obvious fright which the
strike gave the capitalist ruling class, makes it
risky for him to give the strike wholehearted sup
port.
The method of Norman Thomas is, therefore,
10 give the strike tempered lp-service and at the
same time, to water down his support by so many
auxiliary reservations, that in the end he has prac
tcay arrived at the strke-breakng position of the
ruling class and their devoted servants in the A. F.
of L. top officialdom.
THE first task Of the Socialist Party leaders as,
for example, Norman Thomas, is to take away
the criminal onus of guilt from the A. F. OF L. top
officials who stabbed the strike in the back by
calling it off.
This, Norman Thomas proceeds to do at once.
In this weeks issue of the New Leader, Socialist
Party organ, he states:
In San Francisco the general strike was soon
called off by labor ITSELF"
This is deliberate blanket whitewash of the
treachery of the A. F. of L. bureaucracy, which
alone called off the strike, which co-operated with
the government and shipowners in attempting to
drive a wedge between the radicals and the
strikers.
1t was not labor which ended the strike It
was the betrayers of labor the A. F. of L. bu-
reaucracy, headed by Green, beloved of the Social
list Party leadership.
IT is not superfluous to repeat again what even so
capitalist-loyal a liberal sheet as the Nation"
said this week about the treachery at San Fran
cisco:
Most shameful of ALL" says the Nation ed
itorially, William Green made himself party
to the strike breaking Mr. Green's statement
superfluous if it was not actually treach-
erOus 1t had no other purpose than to stimulate
sentiment against the rank and file who had
forced the strike in opposition to their conserva-
tive leaders. At the same time that Mr.. Green
was helping to deliver the workers into the hands
of their enemies, Mr. Ryan, president of the 1.
L. A., also played the strike breaking game"
For once, the Nation" here gives the truth
about the abyss that separates the rank and file
membership in the A. F. of L. and the top official
dom.
1t is made clear that the Pacific Coast general
strike was forced upon reluctant A. F.. of L. Off
cialdom, and betrayed by them at the first oppor-
tunity
Now the Nation" has no obligations to the
working class, nor does it pretend to. Norman
Thomas offers himself to the masses as leader
the fight to end canita1iSno and uaoe slavery
But Norman Thomas now finds himself to the
right of even the pink-tea sheet, the liberal ma
ton in his ardor for the most corrupt labor lead
ership in the world, the A. F. of L. bureaucracy
1t would be pertinent question for Socialist
workers and members of trade unions sympathetic
to the Socialist Party to ask themselves: how does
it happen that the leader of the Socialist Party
now takes position more conservative than the
outspoken supporters of capitalism?