The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-19
History of General.
Strike Shows Power.
OF the Rank and File.
Reactionary Leaders of
A. F. of L. Couldn't
Stem the Tide
By HARRY RAYMOND

HUILL they vote to go out on gen
" eral striker" Michael Casey.
reactionsry president of the San
Francisco Transfers Union. was
asked as he left meeting Of the
Labor Councils Strategy Committee
on July Is, after the rank and file
Of his union had voted to strike
and was already on strike in SYM
pathy with the maritime workers.
Not If we can help it," Casey
replied.
But Casey couldn't help it. D.
Vandeleur, president of the Labor
Council, couldn't help it either.
San Francisco Labor, the rank
and file of over a hundred unions,
was moving forward to the general
strike.
Up in the office of Mayor Rossi
q meeting was being held. Seated
in front Of the Mayor were Police
Chief Quinn, who is personally re-
sponsible for the cold blooded muir
der of two striking workers; mem
bers of the police and fire commits
sions, the Mayors personal ad
visors and a United States regular
army colonel in civilian clothes.
At that moment Archbishop Ed
ward J. Hanna, chairman of Pres
ident Roosevelt's Strike Mediation
Board, was preparing radio ad
dress to be delivered at pm,
urging the workers not to strike.
General JOhnSOn-Strikebrea
AT that moment General Hugh
johnson, Roosevelt's N. r. A.
chieftain. was in Omaha ranting
against the strike and awaiting an
army airplane to take him to the
Pacific Coast strike area.
At that moment an extra edition
of the San Francisco Examiner with
screaming h es dline big
rushed off the presses.
But all the N. R. A. mediators
and all the state troops and the
top leaders OF the A. F. of L. could
not carry out the pious wish of the
owners Of ships and factories.
The second great general strike
in the history of American labor
was in the making.
On Monday, July IS, at 8 am,
the general walkout was an accom-
plished fact. The wheels Of in
dustry, with labor's brakes drawn
tight, came to a sudden stop.
When Mooney Walked
Along the streets of San Fran
cisco where Tom Mooney and j.
B. Mcnamara, pioneers of labor on
the West Coast, once walked, COM
plete paralysis overlook industrial
traffic. Truck movements in all the
five counties stopped as patrols of
pickets moved in San Francisco,
Oakland and adjacent territories.
1t was labor's day on the
streets!
Frisco working men and women
had stopped all traffic on these
same streets few days before to
carry their dead to the cemetery
The bodies of Nicolas Bordoise, a
union cook, and Howard s. Sperry
a longshoreman, both shot in the
back by policemen. were followed
by tens of thousands up Market ST.
and not a truck, or automobile
or street car dared interfere with
the great solemn procession.
Hero again the spirit of Tom
Mooney, the imprisoned leader of
the working class, was present.
The spirit of Mooney stirred in
the breasts of the thousands of
marching men and women.
Following the caskets Of the
murdered workers walked a little
aged woman, supported on the
arm of big red-faced man.
1t was Mary Mooney, mother of
Tom, with her son John at her
elbow.
What Tom Mooney has fought for
has come to pass-solidarity of the
working class in a general strike
movement.
Enter the BetrayerS
But things do not travel smoothly
in general strike movements. The
workers are being harassed on all
sides. They are being attacked from
without by the troops, the police
fascist vigilante committees, Mayor
Rossi's committee of 500 and the
N. R. A. officialdom. Within their
own ranks the workers have the
A. F. Of L. top leaders to combat.
The enemies from within col
laborating with the enemies out
side the labor movement have rail-
roaded through q despicable resolu-
ton agreeing to arbitrate all de-
mands under the direction of the
N. R. A.
This is the very point that the
mass of the strikers voted against
Harry Bridges, rank and file leader
of the longshoremen, denounced
the move as rank betrayal
To submit to government
trolled arbitration would be to
submit to the shipowners.
To return to work without