The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-05
For the Right to Strike

DURING the election campaign the can
~ didates of the capitalist parties urged
the workers to support them on the
grounds that they would vote for legisla-
ton that would benefit the working class.
The falsity of their election balyhoo was again
exposed by the announcement of the New York
State Economic Council on Saturday that about rs
per cent of the candidates for Congress and the
Legislature of New York are for the enactment of
laws prohibiting general and sympathetic strikes,
and for abolshing picketing by limiting it to
mere announcement that strike had been called
This marks new step in the employers drive
to outlaw strikes and to destroy the trade unions
From the inception Of the New Deal the herding
of the workers in fascist unions has been among
the important goals of the Roosevelt administra-
ton. This fascist aim has been disguised by talk
Of putting the unions under federal control. But
government licensing of unions would mean the de-
struction Of all independent trade union action.
1t is significant that the candidates proposal to
ban sympathy and general strikes and to outlaw
pcketing was released the day after the National
Association of Manufacturers announced a drive
against unions and strikes on the basis OF the
Labor Boards sell-out agreement in the A. and P.
lockout against its workers in Cleveland
The Wall Street press has announced that the
lockout by the A. and P was the first of series of
lockouts against militant unions by the big
ployers With the workers preparing for strike
tons to better their conditions and raise their
starvation wages the capitalist class moves toward
the complete outlawing of strikes and picketing in
order to sti1e the workers attack against the hun
ger policies of the New Deal
If the capitalists are permitted to go through
with these fascist measures then the workers would
be denied the use of the one weapon that force
the bosses to grant higher wages No picketing as
every worker knows means no successful striking.
1t is the mass picket line that beats the boss into
submission.
The outlawing of the sympathy and general
strike is just as great menace to the working
class. When section Of the working class is de-
feated, it means a defeat for all the workers. The
general strike is among the workers greatest wea-
pons against the bosses. This expression of work
ing class solidarity and militancy is greatly feared
by the capitalists as was shown at their hysteria
in the San Francisco general strike.
To imprison the workers in fascist unions and
prevent them from fighting effectively, the capital
lists are scheming to rob the workers Of their best
fighting weapons. The workers who vote on Tues
day should bear in mind that vote for a capitalist
candidate is vote for the outlawing of strikes and
the right to picket and organize. Even before they
have been elected the capitalist candidates have
announced their anti-working class stand
Vote for your own class. Vote for the Commu-
mist candidates. who will fight for the workers right
to strike for higher wages to organize in genuine
unions and to strike in support of any part of the
working class that is subject to the attacks of the
capitalists.
Vote Communist!