The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-28
100000 Jobless in
Illinois and Indiana:
Negroes Suffer Most
More Than $4,000 Participated in Numerous
Strike Struggles During Last Period


the Saratoga Laundry Service Co., !
214 w. Huron St., are striking |
against the 1914 cents an hour |
scale. They are primarily Negro !
women, and their weekly earnings
S7.25 a week for 55 to so
hours work per week, that is, an
Of 1919 cents an hour, work
ing under the most brutal speed-up
and unsanitary conditions. And be-
cause they dared to go on strike
demanding an eight hour day and
minimum wage of so cents an hour,
Mayor Kelly sent his police to club
and arrest the women, who are
thrown into jails because they re-
volted against the sweat-shop con-
ditions of the N. R. A.
100000 in Two States Jobless
All the promises of Roosevelt's
unemployment" creating new
jobs" nobody will starve," etc,
finds in the States of Illinois and
100000 men, women and
youth out of work Through clos
ing the c. w. A. jobs, nearly 100000
workers were thrown out of jobs,
The few that will remain on So
called relief Jobs" which means
forced labor, are forced to work at
80 cents an hour.
THE Roosevelt New Deal promise
for "the right to organize" ex-
pressed itself in practice in our
District in the form of forcing
in such important plants as
Harvester, Illinois
Steel, Wisconsin Steel, Stock Yards, |
railroads and in the metal indus
try, into company unions. This Is |
carried through by terror in the |
shops, threats of discharging and |
workers, by means of
spying upon workers, for any at
tempt to organize into class struggle |
unions and in struggle for their
rights and improvement of their
Injunctions are being
as a means of breaking
strikes. The unemployed workers,
previous to the New Deal, won
through mass militant struggles
the right to their committees at
the Relief Stations. Now, under the
New Deal, this has been denied and
has been enforced through the most
vicious bloody attack upon those
workers who dared to take their
rights into their own hands. This
terror has been carried through in
Chicago through the bloodhounds
of the Red Squad, particularly on
the South Side against the Negro
masses.
$4,000 in Recent Strikes
It is under these conditions that
the Chicago workers and workers
throughout the State of Illinois
are developing their struggle |
against the lashes and offensive of |
the Roosevelt New Deal as carried
on in Illinois through the Kelly
Democratic machine In
the last period more than $4,000
workers have been involved in
numerous strike struggles. Tens
Of thousands of unemployed demon
in numerous cities; also
school teachers, students and post
office employees. Farmers struggled
for increased prices for their
products. Demonstrations against
and foreclosures.
In these struggles the most out
was the general strike in
Centraha, Illinois, which began with
a strike in one department in a
shoe factory for the demand of
firing slave-driying foreman who
abused women and a forelady who
worked with him, spread through
out the shop and in a period of
three days spreading to all trades,
G. w. A. projects and finally among
the miners, despite the bitter OPP
position of the offlcialdom of the
U. M. W. A, 1t was a complete
general strike in this town of 12,-
900 population. This strike carried
in it political elements and showed
that in this period a strike which
can begin around some small griev-
ance, can be developed to a higher
stage and further shows that work
ers realize that their strength lies
in unity.
Steel and Packing Strikes
In this period also we had the
first partial strikes since 1882 in |
the steel and packing industries of
Chicago. Many workers who par
ticipated in strikes in this period |
have entered the class struggle for
the first time, such as the Negro |
women in Sopkin Dress, young
workers in leather, food, needle
trades, etc.
The resistance to the company
unions in the steel mills, particu-
larry in the Illinois Steel in Gary, |
and South Chicago, where the
ma jority of the workers in the re-
cent elections in the company union
ballots expressed their hatred |
against the company unions by |
voting NO" on the proposed plan
of reforms of the company |
similar resentment |
against company unionism is
among the railroad and |
metal workers. There is also a
upsurge among the Il
linois miners. particularly those
in the P. M. A.
The growing demand for the |
Workers Unemployment Insurance
Bill Oh. R. 1899 now before U. S. i
Congress, the growing desire for
into trade unions
the Negro proletariat on the
South Side of Chicago-these are
indications that the Chicago pro-
letariat is entering on the path Of |
struggles and begins to realize the
real meaning of the Roosevelt N.
R. A. New Deal. not only as far
as their Worsened conditions. wages. |