The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-07
Continued from Page y

was bound to let loose within a
very short time. Knowing of the
appointment of the workers with
the Sellout settlement, aware of the
fact that the union had not yet
been consolidated, the companies
considered this an opportune time
to challenge the union and to at
tempt to establish a company union
controlled by the bosses.
Accordingly they proceeded to
force the workers into a company
union and when the chairman of
one of the Parmelee garages re-
fused to join, he was discharged.
The workers in the rest of the
garages of Parmelee realized the
meaning of this challenge. They
promptly responded with strike
which paralyzed the Parmelee fleet.
ParmeIee Key Fleet
The leaders of the Trade Union
Unity Council, in discussing the
situation with some of the leading
members of the taxi drivers, adj
viSed them to concentrate their eff
forts in winning the strike of the
Parmelee, because the outcome of
this strike would be decisive in the
entire industry. We pointed out to
these leading comrades that the
union had just been born but not
yet consolidated, not yet ready to
meet new test of strength, that
there was some disappointment
among the workers with the out
come Of the strike which must be
overcome. We had no doubt that
the taxi drivers would respond in
mass should the union decide to ex-
tend the strike of the Parmelee to
a general strike.
However, we knew that in this
strike the union would have to con-
tend With much greater obstacles
than in the first strike, rot only on
the part of the fleet owners and
the city administration, but also on
the part of the Socialist Party. We
knew from our experiences in other
industries that the Socialist Party,
whose leaders, Panken and Levy,
had been discredited among the
taxi drivers, would stop at nothing
to sabotage the strike, and, as in the
case of other industries, such as
fur and shoe, would openly align
themselves with the bosses to de-
feat the strike led by militants.
At the first meeting of the execu-
tive council called to consider the
question of the second general
strike, Gilbert voted against the
strike, but since he could not con-
vince the others he agreed to the
strike at the second meeting.
The leadership of the union did
not fully realize these difficulties
and yielded to the pressure of the
workers to extend the strike on a
general scale.
The second strike of the taxi
drivers will remain one of the most
militant pages in the history of the
labor movement in New York. For
a period of two weeks, the taxi
drivers fought against the most
powerful combination of enemies,
which included the city and federal
administration, the powerful fleet
owners controlled by General Mo-
tors. They encountered a wall of OPP
position and sabotage from the
leaders of the Socialist Party and
the A. F. of L., who threw out the
committee of strikers who came to
appeal for assistance to their local
meetings Relying only on the sup
port from the militant sections OF
the labor movement, the taxi
drivers carried on a battle which
aroused the greatest admiration OF
the entire labor movement. This
battle placed this hitherto unor-
gsnized, undisciplined and what had
appeared to be backward workers IN
the front ranks of the American
labor movement.
Militant Leadership
The experiences in the first strike
taught the workers that the only
way to defeat the bosses is through
militant struggles. The rank ane
file leaders of the strikers, Orner
Gilbert. Cantor and Rabin, coming
from the ranks of the workers
learned valuable lesson from the
first strike. Instead of permitting
themselves to be closeted in con
ference for days in succession, o.
was the case in the first strike
leaving the workers in a state o
suspense and expectancy, without
any leadership, they gave up thel