The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-10-02
Rank andFle Plans
AL Farley Fight
By Bill Dunno
Continued from Page y

~ LIN - AAAAhN
Continued from Page y
reason for such open and bitter
struggles as that in the Building
Trades Department, fight for po-
sition by officials, of such intensity
that it could bring about an or
ganizational split.
Report Reveals Crisis
The report of the Executive
Council, released for publication on
Monday, Oct, l, coinciding with the
formal opening of the Convention
is an admission of the practically
complete failure Of the A. F. Of L.
efficialdom to solve the main con-
tradiction. CThese reports as a
rule are released for publica ion
and comment some time before the
official opening of the convention0
This year the official crisis took on
such sharp character and the
great strike movement has involved
so many hundreds of thousands of
workers in decisive industries,
threatening the whole N. R. A. pro-
gram, that the release Of the re-
port was delayed to prevent en-
barrassing discussion Of its con-
tents before the convention.
The release of the report of the
Executive Council entirely over
shadows the formal opening of the
convention. The report discloses,
not in formal language, but in its
composition and general construe-
ton, the crisis of leadership in the
official family. 1t attempts to ex-
plain away the fundamental prob
lem arising from the continued
growth of the army Of permanently
unemployed and the fact that the
Executive Council itself, using the
most liberal methods of estimate,
can place the number of workers
returned to industry as result OF
the operation of the N. R. A. at
100000.
Workers, bankrupt business peo-
pie and jobless professional ele-
ments, together with those of both
sexes who become of working age
yearly, make a total of three to four
times the number estimated as re-
turned to work, added to the
millions of iobless people in the
United States.
The only relief proposed by the
Executive Council in this report is
some tinkering with the methods of
application of the N. r. A.
Rank and File Program
For this reason there will be in
this convention, in spite of every
thing that officialdom can do to
prevent it, a sharp clash between
the Northumberland policy ex-
pressed in the Executive Councils
report, and the program of the
American Federation of Labor ranE
and file committee. The rank and
file program is divided into some
four sections, and in its concrete
form is expressed in some twenty
five resolutions introduced by dele
gates from practically all Of the
major industrial sections OF the
country.
Unemployment Insurance, ane
the endorsement of H, r, 1898 =
Workers Unemployment Insurance
Bill-stands at the head of the list
Demands for the establishment o
genuine inner-union democracy, thu
reputation Of the official denial o
right to sympathetic and genera
strikes, provision for the mainte-
nance and good standing of unem-
ployed union members, demand
for the right of union members tt
belong to any political party, ant
to be free from discrimination, sus
pension or expulsion by reason o
this afiliation, religious belief
racial or national origin, is majol
point in the rank and file program
It's central major political de
mand is for the endorsement ant
organization Of the struggle agains
fascism, and the war program 0
supporters Of fascism, in this anS
other countries, and in every form
in which these fascist and wa
tendencies manifest themselves.
Challenge to Members
The official leadership of the A
F.. of L. by the methods of organic
ing it's open session has throw
down the gauntlet to its dues
paying membership, hundreds 0
thousands of whom have been in
volved in decisive battles with rapa
cious employers and their variou
government agencies in the yea
that has elapsed since their las
convention in Washington, D. c., b.
including in those who welcomes
the 54th Annual Convention indi
viduals like Vandeleur, who utilizer
his position as chairman of the La
Dor Council to make the first breacl
in the ranks of the Bay Countie
workers by ordering back to wor
during the general strike the mem
beers of his union of municipa
J streetcar men; Paul Scharrenburl
Secretary of the California Stat
Federation Of Labor and the Inter
national Seamen's Union, an opel
and avowed enemy of all move
ments of the rank and file of tn
membership; John Coefield, of tn
Plumbers and Steamfitters Union
as the personal representative 0
Governor Merriam, labor-hatinl
and strike-breaking acting execu
tive Of California, whose troops oc
cupied the waterfront in an at
tempt to break the maritime work