The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-01
II Points Aimed At Labor

pEGARDLEss Of what may be said by the govern
ment and capitalist representatives at the MIRA
open hearings in Washington, the main program Of
action against the workers has already been laid down
by General Johnson's widely publicised II points.
Last in these points but not least is the one
declaring for the Wider use Of mechanism for settling
labor disputes in connection with code administration
In other words this signifies the wider use Of
strikebreahng such occurred in weirton Steel in
Budd Auto Body in Ford and in the coal and steel
strikes
The hearings were called originally to strengthen
and tighten the oppressive measures Of the MIRA in
view Of the rapidly rising strike definitely against
the slave provisions Of the codes and against the sub
lection Of the company unions The MIRA. officials
do not want strikes because developed in sufficient
strength, with powerful support by the workers
they would tend to break down the cooie standards
by means Of which the capitalists have well profted
The best answer to General Johnson's program
has been given by Robert Minor representative OF the
Communist Party who speaks at these hearings and
whose speech is published in today's Daily Worker
The eounter-proposals made by the Communist Party
should be discussed by all workers in the factories
where organization and action should take place to put
them into effect in the interest Of the workers.
other OF General Johnson's points are gagged to
strengthen every oppressive feature Of the MIRA OF
course the wiley General does come out in so many
words and declare the real program Of the bosses
But it is implicit in every one of his points For
example, he wants greater discrimination against Ne
gro workers. greater spread between the wages in the
North and South AS he puts it, uniform clas-
sncaton of areas for the purpose Of the North and
South diherentias" The uniform classification" Is
to be undertaken in order to spread the dTerentias
to lower still the wages Of the workers in the
South, especially the Negro workers
He speaks still further about uniformity OF wages
and hourly rates in competitive industries" which will
inv Whit hoe
going on ever since the N.R.A. was passed. namely
the reducing Of all workers wages to the code min
imVms, to the lowest levels in the country.
ALONG with these main points, the General con-
"A tinuing the precedent OF shameless and unabashed
denagogy which characterized the MIRA. from its un-
molly birth up until today talks about increasing hourly
rates and reducing weekly hours But in practice.
the General and all NR.A. officials have aided the
bosses in doing the opposite General johnson approved
higher weekly hours in the auto industry which cost
10000 workers their Jobs, He aided other capitalists
increase their factory hours.
To soothe the ruffled feelings Of the small bust
who have been suffering from the RAPIDLY
developing N-R.A monopolies he talks about "protec-
ton against monopoes Yet the basic purpose of the
N.R-A is to help monopoly capitalism the big trusts
who not only control the NFA. on the top but by
every means.
BY strengthening the big trusts, and through the
gram of imitation, prices have been shooting upward
thereby adding greater and more oppressive burdens on
the workers.
General johnson begins his 12-point program by
an attempt to answer the resoundng cry against sky
rocketng prices he talks Of national price stab-
zaton. which is for Roosevelts basic program
OF higher price level He talks about Insurance
against increase Of price faster and further than in
crease Of purchasing power" But that baloney was
given to the workers originally when their wages were
held down while prices mounted skyward
Then the General talks about "a much improved
method Of securing prompt and effective compliance
There is awful lot Of dynamite contained in this
innocent looking clause far the workers con-
cerned 1t means, above ALL the improvement of all
the ant-labor strikebreaking apparatus Of the NRA
to make the workers comply with the low-wage codes
with the company unions, with every decree of the
NR-Aq which dooms them to coolie living standards
and to attempt to reduce their unions to useless
gans without the power of struggle.
We urge all workers particularly Communist Party
members, to take up in their factories the program
against the MIRA put forward by Comrade Minor and
give it the widest circulation and discussion.