The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-10-26
Party Life
Party Actives
Must Stay Close
To Railroad Workers

To Railroad Workers
THE article in Tuesdays Daily"
on concentration toward h c
railroads, puts a little heart into
some of us. I only hope it's not
another paper resolution. The ar
ticles carries two ideas: l. An I'M
derstanding of the railroad workers
problems. 2. The strategic impor-
lance of the railroads.
On the second point, I would like
to say that the Friday issue Of the
Daily" has not come up to stand
ard in carrying railroad news of
late. Gwen this railroad concen-
tration article should have been
saved for the Friday issue). Just
lately we had a trackman's conven-
ton in Detroit. The oily two things
they did was: l. Pass a resolution
to bar all Communists from the or
ganization. ?. Resolve to redouble
their efforts to secure better wages
for the lowest paid rail workers. Not
word was printed in the Daily"
and it should have been well pub
licized in the Friday issue. It seems
that the strategic importance is not
recognized, although we should
know that the railroads are regard
ed as the arteries of the nation,
ETC., and for good logical reasons.
They are also the basic arguing
point for the capitalists in banking
and insurance, always stressing the
fact that We must maintsin the
roads dividends because of the mil
lions of dollars that are invested
in the roads by the life insurance
company, and so on.
I THINK it will be the hardest part
l of our work to get other workers
to understa>d the railroad workers
problems, most important Of which
is that because the work is stragetic,
that the rail-worker is given bet
tel bowl of soup" and inclined to
be cautious on that account We
must remember that they have SEN
iority rights, pass rights, pensions,
etc. And principally, that if rail
worker loses his job he cannot get
orb on any other railroad. Due
to the age limitations, if a rail
worker loses his job, he also loses
his trade, and because of the gen
eral characteristics of railroad work
they are not so well fitted for other
work.
In concentrating on rail workers,
I mention the following points:
l. The Party leaders assigned to
the various shop units must come
down to earth" analyze each situa-
ton fully, and be governed accord
ingly. I think that some of the
Party leaders do not realize how far
ahead they are of the workers they
meet and so new contacts are scared
away.
2. That when contact is started
in any local union, that a progress
sive program be instituted, and not
to overload that particular union
with calls for this and petitions for
that. The average rail-union con-
siders a two-hour meeting long
one, and are not developed to the
extent of reading through much cir
cularization from various Party
movements, no matter how much
the necessity would seem to be for
immediate action.
7 ALSO think concentration is in
l order when we see the wave of
strikes in other industries, we re-
member that every great nationwide
railroad strike has been practically
a spontaneous strike, and when we
know that several individual roads
have taken separate strike ballots
in the last two years. So we know
that eventually a general strike is
inevitable.
If concentration is carried out
correctly in every railroad terminal
possible, we should be in a good po-
sition in case of general strike.
Any one local union, in any terminal
would then be the focal point, the
particular group to call for united
front.
So certainly approve of railroad
concentration. It should be done
in every terminal where we have
contacts and members. I even think
that all railroad members should be
assigned to this work, and should
not be required to do any other
work, even though no immediate re-
suits could be seen. And this, I
think, is the biggest obstacle right
now, because street union work is
interesting, and it seems hard to
get rail-members to realize the i'm
portance of rail concentration.
Once again I'd like to mention
the Friday issue. believe that in
the majority of rail groups the work
will be at the start, as opposition
groups, unity groups, but that Fri
day issue should be such that we
can introduce it to the most adj
vanced of the opposition groups and
thus gradually draw them into the
shop units.
Comradely,
r. w. r., Detroit.