The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-10-16

4ooItCb 4AdtlIE VI ITO
Your correspondent, in Gne capac-
ity or sslother. has attended four
teen COZ secutive American Fedora
ition of L>bor conventions. But in
q these four. en- years he has never
seen such opsn and vicious methods
Of railroading any resolution which,
In the opinion OF officialdom,
smacked of Communism.
It must be said for the rank and
file delegates that they are not lack
ing in courage. In the face Of
snarling barraGe, the signal for
which at all times was given by
President Green, delegates in the
front seats able to hear his con-
fidential advisor say Communist"
every time delegate rose to speak
on the fundamental resolutions be-
fore the convention, time after time
delegates committed to the rank and
file program walked down to the
microphone through bowling mob
Of official delegates.
Time after time, President Green
ruled them out of order But they
kept coming. Their insistence on
their right to speak in the conven-
ton, a democratic right of which
the American Federation Of Labor
oficialdom always boasts, Infatuated
the so-called recognized leadership
Of the convention.
These officials sneered and snarled
and actually frothed at the mouth,
because handful of rank and file
delegates demanded the right to
speak. They never rot it. But they
discovered. and thousands of work
ers for whom they spoke, will learn
that the democratic pretenses of the
American Federation Of Labor lead
ership is just SO much window dress
ing-that when it thinks the OPP
perfume moment has arrived, it is
just as ruthless and brutal in its
attitude toward the membership as
are the heads of monopoly capital
ism in steel, oil, textile and other
basic industries.
There was another lesson learned
1t is that ruthless brutality by Off
cialdom marches on, bulwarked by
maneuverS intended to confuse and
disrupt the opposition to its pro-
gram. During the course of the
time when the official steam roller
fattened out all opposition, the hose
was turned off occasionally and the
machine haltel, to permit a number
of dsspicable agents of the bureau
cracy to take the platform.
Praise For Strikehreaker Olson
Leading the list of these agents
of reaction was Lawson. secretary
Of the Minnesota State Federation
OF Labor. He took the platform to
support the committee recommen-
dation for non concurrence in the
resolution condemning the use of
militia against strikers. He objected,
he said, to a blanket condemnation
Of the use of the National Guard in
strikes. He said that In the Min
rleapolis strike of truck drivers
Governor Olsen, the Farmer Labor
Governor of Minnesota, really had
used the troops to protect the in
terests of the strikers and of the
organized labor movement. The Of
f1ciel deleoate5 aoplaude| wildlv.
He said not one word that would
give any inkling of the fact that
Governor Olson broke the truck
drivers strike in Minneapolis.
On smaller scale the same thing
occurred il connection with the
speech made by Dallas, rank and
file delegate from the Flour and
Cereal Workers Federal Labor
Union. TIE delegate from the
Seattle Central Labor Council,
demonstratively recognized by Presi-
dent Green, arose and said that
he deplored and repudiated the
charges of gangsterism made by
Delegate Dallas against the business
agent Of the teamsters union in
Seattle, one Beck. He said that
Brother Beck was respected
leader of the Seattle labor move
1lent, and that the organized labor
movement in America was coming
10 a pretty pass when Communists
should arise in it's national con-
vention and SANDER such ou stand
ing leaders IS Brother Beck. Dallas
tried to get the floor He YVES howled
down.
Agents of Capitalism
The treatment that Dallas got
was the same as that accorded to
every speaker who tried to get the
floor for rank and file resolu ions.
With its internal questions settled
and the members of the official
family again secure for at least a
year, officialdom barred it's fascist
fangs.
1t is not the decision for the
change of base from craft to in
dustrialism that shows the real
character of American Federation
of Labor officialdom, but the way
n which resolutions of funda-
mental character, both in regard to
structure and policy of the organ
lied American labor movement,
we're trea ed that determines ac-
tually what these officials really are
agents of monopoly capitalism,
compelled by the pressure of the
class struggle reaching it's highest
point in America in the last year,
to make some gestures and adopt
some measures calculated to main
tain their connection with the work.
ing class, without which they are
of no use to their masters.