Voice of action. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1933-1936, 1934-06-08
TheFRONT
TN WI BY
LINE ALAN MAX
Scab Mayor
Strike Wave
Plain Talk =


On his first day in office, Mayor
Charles Smith looks out of the
same windows that bloated Johnny
DOre peered through, and sees only
one thing; the threat of the long
shore strike on the profits of the
shipowners.
Like Dore, he is unable to see
the thousands of unemployed in
this city. He closes his eyes to the
soaring prices of foods to 100
per cent higher than a year ago
with the voucher still at S1.20 per
week.
And his first official act as
Mayor is a strike breaking message.
But Smith knows a trick or two.
He has apparently been studying
the speeches of Roosevelt. He adj
dresses his message to both the
longshormen and the shipowners.
Don't delay another day in
getting our ships running to Alaska.
to the Orient and all ports of the
world. Don't let other cities take
away from you that which Is yours"
observe-The ships are OUR
ships, according to Smith, be-
longing to longshoremen, ship
owners and the general pub
lie" alike. And the profits, ac-
cording to Smith, are shared by
shipowners and longshoremen
equally.
With this line of new deal"
demagogy, the Mayor steps into
office and hopes to justify what
ever action he may take against
the strike.
No, Smith. our" ships still be-
long to the shipowners.
And so do you.
Meanwhile the government is mo-
bilizing all its forces to push back
the strike wave that Is sweeping
the country.
The strike of the 10000 teamsters
and sympathetic building trades
workers. has been sold out in
Minneapolis under the combined
pressure of the NRA, the AFL
leaders and the local politicians,
who fooled the men into voting
for arbitration.
In Toledo, after week of civil
war. IN which thousands of workers
heroically fought back against the
attacks of the National Guard and
during which two strikers were
murdered, the capitalist press re-
ports a settlement. No terms are
mentioned.
In Weirton. Pa, another layer of
lies has been ripped off the MIRA.
Last October, when the steel work
ers were about to win their strike.
they were trapped back to work by
Roosevelt, by the MIRA Labor
Board and by their leaders of the
Amalgamated Association of Iron,
Steel and Tin Workers.
II only they would go back to
work, Roosevelt sweetly promised
them, he would see that they got
union recognition. and higher
wages. So they went back to work
and the Weirton Steel Company
gave them nothing.
To maintain the faith Of the
workers, the MIRA pretended to
be up in arms and took the
case to the Federal District
Court. Now, after months Of
silence from the iourt and after
the careful wedding out Of the
more militant elements by the
company, a decision is handed
down telling the Wierton Steel
employers to do exactly as they
please.
But the NRA will continue its
Shiny maneuvers in a last desperate
effort to remain impartial" in the
eyes of the workers. 1t will appeal
the case-and that will probably
take until after June, 1935-when
the NRA expires and new appeal
will probably have to be made.
The Seattle Times rings forth for
a fascist dictatorship to smash the
strikes.
bad as the labor situation is.
uncontrolled as it is, bitter as it is,
those who have been making a
close study OF 1t for the president,
believe it will continue. In fact.
they think 1t will get worse.
"Some Of them even 90 50 far
as to say that only dictator
ship-caII il Fascism IL you like
will break the present tide
Of bitterness and bloodshed
which is sweeping the iron and
steel areas, the textile industry,
the automobile plants, the cleo
tricaI shops"
Here is plain talk for once. The
brain trust then is not committed
to Communism as the capitalist
press has been insisting, but toward
Fascism, as the Communist Party
has always asserted.
And the answer TO dictatorship