The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-03

Must Be Ready With
Action to Meet New
Wave of Auto Strikes

shop, special emphasis must be laid
on the question of the COMMITTEES
that is 10 talk for the men, or 10
see that the action is carried ont.
This is very important for II the
committee fails in the moment when
they are expected to take the lead.
the rest Of the workers are con
fused, with the result that the work
in building the union Is greatly
hindered. Plenty Of time should be
spent on eIecting a committee.
The local has now recruited many
more members and has carried out
similar action. They are now taking
steps to spread the union to the other
departments.
Now then. here is an example OF
how an individual member Of the A
w. U. worked in forming a group
He get a job. No other worker in
his department of 800 were union
members. There was quite bit OF
kicking about the wages, so he i'm
mediately began to agitate the men
to take some action. He went around
and talked to the men. He proposed
an increase that appealed to all the
men, and they all talked about this
Then he proposed striking and going
to the superintendent. This they
talked about. Then he proposed
time which they accepted.
He then went to the men and told
them that they were all depending
on each other. so that when the time
came to act, they all started to move
to the superintendent office. He
then went along the line and gave
little egging to the weaker ones, with
the result that they all struck. He
himself WIS the last TO leave the de-
partment, and the workers We're
watching him get them all out. Then
when the superintendent asked for
the spokesman, they looked to him
He stepped up and presented the
demands Of the men. The result was
they got a substantial raise. He was
then looked upon as the man that
got them a Faise, with the result that
he has now gotten a group together,
and they are forming local, not be
cause of these things alone, but be
cause he pointed out to them that
he was carrying out the policy OF the
Auto Workers Union.
In another department, the men
were going to do the same thing, but
here the A. F. of L. has a foothold
and they decided not to strike but
to wait. This was used as a means
oF ayfNOSit1or tho r NJ 7,
Outside Work Important
These are a few examples to show
thatNwe can use different methods OF
organizing in the shops and that we
should not insist that we have
group and then act. But we must
keep in mind the main emphasis in
building our unions. Class struggle
unions must be based ON action
carried out by groups in the depart
ment and shops as means OF build
ing our union, at the same time we
must not neglect the outside work,
shop gate meetings, leaflets, mass
meetings, etc.
Last year we had quite Job with
the Red Scare, and the companies
WGIE dDlG W QoC bl1lS W oil CAOCAAN
enc stively. This was due mostly to
the fact that we left tse field to the
capitalist press, with the result that
they succeeded at times in splitting
us from the workers. Since the last
strikes steps have been taken to over
come this shortcoming by issuing
Party leaflets at the shops, and sell
ling the Daily Worker, ETC., but this
work is far short of being done as 1t
should. But we have learned our
lesson. This time we are explaining
who the "Reds" are, and when the
strikes come we will and must come
out boldly and let the workers know
who the Reds are, and why the Red
Scare is raised.
Then the most important thing
that all members must have as their
perspective, in all the work they do
in getting groups together in issuing
leaflets, in selling papers etc, is the
question of the United Front with the
workers of the other unions. We
must have In mind always the ques-
ton of building a United Industrial
Union in the Auto Industry, proving
and showing to the workers during
the course of our every day work ano
struggles that this is the only way