The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-18
The Attitude of
HGWU Leaders
TOWardSNegrOeS
Continued from Page y

tional was held in Chicago in the
aristocratic Jim Grow Medina Club.
During the first week of the con-
vention all the Negro delegates were
not permitted to go up in the same
elevator with the other delegates.
They were sent to the service eleva-
tor, where very often they had to
wait for hours before they would be
taken up to the hall.
Forced to Move.
On Friday, the fifth day of the
convention, the Negro delegates
were forced to move from the hotel.
Esther Schweitzer and a number of
other delegates moved together with
them in protest. The convention
continued in the same hall, from
which the Negro delegates have
been elected. Again on the follow
ing morning Esther Schweitzer rose
to demand the moving of the con-
vention. Dubinsky forced her to sit
down. The Lovestonites again did
not come to her support
The situation became so scandal
lous, the few rank and file dele
gates in the balcony were burning
with indignation. On the following
Monday the machine was finally
forced to move the convention.
The Lovestonites who so bitterly
resented the leaflet of the Industrial
Union about their failure to fight
for the rights of the Negro workers,
did not utter a word of protest
against this condeScending superior
attitude tow<rd the Negro workers.
Throughout all the discussion and
all the bouquets that were sup
poSedly thrown at the Negro work
ers there was no attempt to under
stand the problems of the Negro
workers in the industry or to solve
them. Despite the discrimination
that was going on under the very
nose of the convention by jim
Growing the Negro delegates, not a
single word gave recognition to the
fact that there is such thing
as a Negro problem that is differ
ent from the problem of the white
workers.
If there is any proof needed to
substantiate the charge of the Left
Wing with regard to the attitude of
the IL.GW.U. officialdom, includ-
ing the Lovestoneites, toward the
Negro workers, their so-called jubi-
lee convention was the best proof.
Must Fight Vigorously
However, the left wing and mill
tant workers cannot merely content
themselves by exposing the right
wing and the Lovestonites with re-
gard to the problem of the Negro
workers. The left wing until now,
though raising the problem of Ne
gro workers, has not fought with
sufficient vigor against the discrim-
inatory practices in the shops, has
not done sufficient work to explain
the Negro question as a national
question to the mass of workers,
and has not carried on persistent
enough struggle against white chau-
vinism that still exists and is en-
couraged not only by the bosses but
by the reformist bureaucracy.
This convention has brought more
sharply to the left wing and mill
tant elements of the union the i'm
portance of taking up real strug-
gle in defense of the day to day
interests of the Negro workers in
the shops and for the right of the
Negro workers to participate in the
leadership and in all the affairs of
the union on an equal footing with
the white workers. In fact, the left
wing must exert special efforts to
draw the Negro workers into the
left wing, into the shop committees
and other leading bodies. In devel-
oping this struggle the left wing
will line up the thousands of Ne
gro workers, still the most exploited
section of the workers in the trade,
in support of the left wing program
so that the Negro workers will join
hands with the white workers in
fighting against the misleadership
of the reformists of the ILG.W.U.
and for policy of struggle for bet
ter conditions and against all re-
formist ideas inculcated in the
minds of the. workers by the re-
formist leaders and the bosses.