The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-17
BY EDWIN ROLFE

| WltQ the racine coast LABOR
united today in the most powerful
demonstration Of its strength and
solidarity witnessed in the United
States for decades, the entire kept
press of the country is, up in arms
against what it terms an unusual
and unprecedented" course of ac-
ton.
The New York Herald Tribune,
| for example, declares that the
general strike =. Is apparently to
be attempted in San Francisco this
morning for the first time in Amer
lean labor history" The New York
Times with pitifully transparent
sophistry, tries to distort the i'm
portance of this mass outpouring
of Western workers by drawing
verbal distinctions between gen
eral strike and 'loeal" or sym
pathy' strike.
And all the capitalist papers in
the country chirp frightened varia-
lions on the following theme ex-
pressed by the World Telegram edi-
torial:: THE general strike is the
way of suicide for organized labor"
Plunged into abject fear by the
splendid living proof Of the Hercu-
lean power and solidarity of the
working class, all the forces of
capitalism cry out, panic stricken,
against it. Over 125,0O union men,
and thousands of additional unor-
ganized workers as well, are already
out. In the face of this mighty
action, the organs of finance capt.
tai, of big industry, roar that mo
general strike has ever been even
partly successful in this country
OF in any other, according to rec
ords of industrial warfare. :. :"
tWorld- telegram.
What miserable, ignorant lies!
This is deliberate distortion, aimed
to prove" that what is happening
in San Francisco today cannot re-
suit in victory for the workers; aim
ed to intimidate the strikers them
selves by telling them that you
can't do this because it has never
been DONE
This is the way in which the
defenders and apologists of capital
ism distort history. They try to
isolate each incident in the glorious,
living continuity of working class
struggle, they try to separate each
action from its predecessor, to iso-
late and make static thing of a
glorious dynamic tradition - the
class struggle tradition.
Ut SHOULD be stated at the out
set that San Francisco in 1884 is
not the first American city ever
to be in the grip of general strike.
A general strike tied up the city
of Seattle, Washington, for more
than four days as recently as 1919.
1t is manifestly impossible here
TO treat every mass working class
action in American history. A few
outstanding examples epitomizing
this whole glorious tradition, must
suffice.
We can mention, at random, the
great 'populist' movement which
swept through the midwest during
the first great crisis in this country
in 1919, the widespread growth of
the labor movement and trade work
ers' organizations from 1924 to the
middle years of the 1905. We can
mention, as early as 1741, long be-
fore the American Revolution, the
walk-out in New York City of jour-
neymen bakers. All of these, and
thousands of other small and large
labor actions, accumulated as the
years went by, forming the historic
pattern and growth of the working
class movement here. Each little
Isolated" action made use of the
lessons of previous similar actions.
Each one. as it moved forward
toward its victory or its temporary
setback. took its place in the line