The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-10-17

ing oil UneJlnQ6. InaJ hlCnafC
tional Automobile Labor Boar
out militant unionists and bu
automobile industry.
The Voice, issued by the Mechan-
les Educational Society, says: Byrd
has been making deals With work
ers who come to him to plead VIC
limitation. These men are all
members of already existing unions.
Byrd thereupon offers to, reinstate
the man if he will promise. to re-
turn to the shop as an organizer
for the Greer union associated
Automobile Workers, which is a
split Of the A. F. of L..
AS reward, he tells them. he
and DR.. Wolman have concocted a
pet scheme Of expanding the ac-
Invites Of the Board by sending
travelling inspectors from plant to
plant. The men who organize for
: the Greer union, he. promises, will
be given preferences. for these pie
card jobs as travelling inspectors.
Another of Byrd's carefully
thought out plans is one telling
men who want jobs that they
!. should enter company unions.
This tactic, he explains. is really
boring from within and, he claims,
he has more than 228 keymen in
Detroit auto company unions. ..
Byrd is cooperating with the
bosses by wedding out militant
trade mionists and men liable to
prove troublesome to more profits
for the employers. ANY man re-
inststed through the good offices of
Byrd is checked against so-called
Communist list, made UP of &C
tive unionists and Communists in
Detroit.
. Smith Would Continue Board
This evidence of the MESA.
Voice also confirms the statements
Of the militant rank and file of the
A. F. Of L. unions that Greer's
union tthe Associated Automobile
q Workers of America, which is a re-
cent split-cff OF the A. f. of L. is
in reality an organization to fasten
the company Unions upon the auto
mobile workers.
But what is the solution proposed
by the MESA. Voice and Mathew
Smith? Mathew Smith is quoted as
saying: Organized labor must i'm
mediately begin a drive to rid the
labor board of Byrd and his ilk
Little can be expected from labor
ooaros in any event, but at least
II labor is represented by a fighting
militant worker, who will stand IN
r and make determined stand
e against the rotten decisions. labor
{ VIII gain, if only from the expose
OF the board itself. Byrd must
3 go! The MESA. will make a for
nal request to the president asking
his removal"
= IN this way Mathew Smith covers
up the real nature of these Automo-
bile Labor Boards and of the
N,R.A. Boards, of which he was
member until recently. To expect
OF Roosevelt that he will remove
Byrd and put on a militant worker
IS only to deceive the auto workers,
The Automobile Labor Board was
set up by President Roosevelt with
the aim of preventing strikes and
fostering company unionism.
smith advocates. not the removal
J OF the entire board. not a struggle
against the strike-breaking soen-
cies, but an improvement by the in
= production Of a militant worker into
4 the board. Are Wolman and Kellv
any better than Byrd? Can we ex-
pect Of the capitalist class that
: control these agencies, that they
Will turn the boards into organs
fighting for the interests. of the
workers? This is the impression
that Smith leaves by his position,
Whole Board Must Go
Mathew Smith has repeatedly
stated in the defense of these
boards that they at least act in
some cases against discrimination.
But the manner in which thev act
sis revealed by the MESA Voice
Itself; lie, these members of the
board use their position to- rein
state men only in order to foster
company un.onism and to weed ont
militantS.
Byrd must go. That is correct.
But not only Byrd-the whole An
tomobile Labor Board must go and
the workers must count only upon
their organized fighting strength to.
achieve anything in the fight
against union discrimination and
the improvement of their working
conditions. This must be the posi-
ton Of militant trade unionisnl.
And this very position Mathew Smith
opposes in the MESA; carrying on
an expulsion policy against mill
tants, who have repeatedly exposed
the sham of the Automobile Labor
Board, pointed out the role which
Byrd and similar agents were play
ing, and who have been attempting
to turn the MESA into a fighting
organization directed against the
employers and their strikebreaking
and union discriminating agencies.
Vote Communist Against Wage
Cuts.