The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-10

National Labor Board, the A. P. Of
L. mislesders, the socialist party
leaders, such as Panken, the Love
stonites. Keller and RubinStein.
drove the strikers back to work.
The A. F. Of L., working with
Wagner and the National Labor
Board, split up the ranks Of the
strikers. section by section and craft
by craft, confused and demoralized
the ranks, and smashed the strike.
The strike in Paterson, following
the sell out OF the dye strikers
there, was ended on the basis of a
strikebreaking agreement whic h
outlawed future strikes, and gave in
on the wage demands and demands
against the speedup.
In this great silk strike the Ma
tionsl Textile Workers Union and
the Communist Party played an in
f1uential and in some sections q
leading role. In Easton, Pa, in the
| dye strike in Paterson, in some Al
lentown mills, either agreements
granting substantial concessions
we're won or the strikers beat an
orderly retreat, returning to work
in body, in many cases with their
elected shop committees.
WHAT were some of the mistakes
" and lessons Of this strike?
Comrade BALKAN correctly lists as
the foremost mistake the failure Of
the NTWU and our Party to work
inside the ranks of the A. F. Of
L. locals; the failure 30 build an
effective opposition against the sell
out inside the ranks of the United
Textile Workers Union. Secondly,
the hesitation of the NTWU and
the Party in Paterson at the begin
ming in taking the initiative in the
struggle, waiting until the A. F. of
L. union (the Associated SILK
called the strike, a hesitation which
at first amounted to a feeling that
the silk workers were not ready for
such struggle The watchful
waiting tendency also affected the
fight against the MIRA in the be-
ginning, instead Of at once opening
up an exposure Of the Blue Eagle
and Rooseyelt's whole program.
Also the united front policies were
not carried through with sufficient
persistence and energy, and were
not concretized into organizational
forms, Thus, the NTWU and the
Party succeeded in taking the ini-
tiative in the dye strike, leading
the dye strikers until almost the
end, in sections as Easton and Al
lentown. But in the center of the
silk strike. the UTW ASSOCIATED
Silk in Paterson, the A. F. of L.
leaders were not seriously chal-
lenged inside of the A. F. of l.
locals.
It seems to this writer that two
more serious shortcomings of the
strike might well be mentioned.
u Whereas there were gains made
by the Party (some 10 new mem
bers in Paterson) there was INSULT
cient Party recruiting based on a
more systematic bringing forward
Of the role of the Party. Through
out the strike, for example, the
Daily Worker was poorly dis
tributed, with only several hundred
Daily Workers a day going over to
these 10000 silk strikers. q Our
lack of preparation, and later, some
Of our amateurish methods of or
ganization, our organizational weak
nesses were felt by many of the
workers who for this reason. feeling
that our union was organizationally
weak inclined toward the A. F. OF
L., although being under the inf1u-
ence Of, and following, our program
The next tasks of the Party and
the NTWU in the textile industry
are summed up in the concluding
chapter, particularly in the resolu-
ton of the Paterson opposition on
the unity of all silk workers for the
formation of one united silk work.
ers' union.