The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-31

Labor, many Of his predictions
nave come true. Much of what
he forecast, speaking in the name
Of the Trade Union Unity League,
has now become reality to plague
the auto workers. The company
union features of the Wagner bill,
also have become clearer.
DHnne in his speech on the
Wagner bill before the Senate
committee does not limit himself,
as the bosses, and their A. F. of L.
oficisidOm and Socialist leaders
do. 70 the wording Of the bill.
He ansly8eS the class forces be-
hind the bail, and what the eX-
pEo&ers aud their government
have in mind when they project
ssch Strikebreaking measure.
We print in this issue the first
insssHunent Of Dunne'S speech
made At the hearings on the
Wagner Bin on March %, 1884,
am here representing the
National Committee of the Trade
Union Unity League William q.
Foster, Secretary, Jack Stachel
Acting Secretary. My organization
is composed Of some 1850 work
efS organized in labor unions in steel
and metal, marine transport, tex
tile, mining, shoe and leather, gar
nent industry, agricultural work
ers, etc.
I have been member of organ
lied labor for more than % years.
have been a labor organizer and
editor OF various labor papers
during periods of this time when not
working at my trade Of electrical
worker.
Our organization is the only
trade union group in this country
that accurately predicted the
coming Of the present crisis-its
difference from previous crises -
its length and intensity.
Early in 1890, Jan. 6, We de-
manded the enactment of compul-
sorry federal unemployment in
Slrance for all unemployed workers.
We showed to workers that the
stagger plan Of employment was a
share hunger program. With the
advent of the New Deal we warned
workers that Clause TIA would not,
and was not intended, co protect
the right Of workers TO organize.
We warned that N. r. A. was es-
sentially a program of monopoly
capitalism In criSiS-that it was in
tended to carry still further altho
under another guise, the capitalist
offensive against wages, working
conditions and living standards
Appearing before the Senate sub
committee on the Black shorter
work week bill on behalf Of the
T. U. U. L. in 1882 I made similar
tstements in regard to its proposals
for solving the problems created for
The working class by the existence
II some 100000 workers for
those maintenance no provision had
zen made.
The Wagner Bill is a further step
IN the so-called Roosevelt Recovery
program. 1t is the height of
stupidity to consider the Wagner
Bill as thing in itself, something
separate and apart from the
Nationall Recovery Act and the
general basic monopoly capital pro-
gram of the Roosevelt administra-
ton.
It is true that the Wagner Bill
has a certain emergency character,
but its main provisions are in
herent in Clause 7 A of the National
Recovery Act of which it is an ex-
tension. As such, the Wagner Bill
under the guise of stimulating and
increasing the so-called bargaining
power of labor organizations, ac-
tually diminiShes the power OF
workers to obtain better wages and
working conditions by putting still
more obstacles in the way of effec-
tive use of the strike weapon--that
is, the ability of labor organizations
to stop production for profit by
refusal to work until their demands
have been scceded to.
This is all that so-called bargain
ing power is. Conflicts between
employers and employees, between
workers and capitalists, over ques-
tionS Of wages and hours. working
conditions, the union shop versus
the open shop or non-union shop
are never decided on the basis OF
right, Justice" human welfare, ,
etc, or other shibboleths used by
well meaning but misguided people
or by conscious demagogues in the
leadership of labor organizations, in
government positions and the
spokesman of the industrial and
financial overlords, for the purpose
Of deluding workers and others into
believing that the present mode Of
production = capitalism - is some
thing else than a coldblooded sys-
tenn Of production for profit.
A dispute over wages and working
conditions is in essence a test OF
power between capital and labor
with government always on the side
of the employers as q class. This is
necessarily so because so-called i'm
partial government is a polite f1c-
ton. Government that does not
represent the interest of the
dominant class in any given epoch
of society is paradox. Govern
ment is the organized power of the
dominant class. In the United
States this is the capitalist class.
In the Union of Socialist Soviet
Republics government represents
also the interests of the dominant
class. the working class.
Conceal Facts from Workers
All this is of course elementary
Conscious representatives Of the
capitalists class know This Just as
well as do Communists and other
class conscious workers. But cap
italists and their representatives
are very anxious to conceal this
fact from the great mass of the
+OfIiy1rr r1ONt11ot fNY, fhaxr