The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-16

thus done everything in his power
to keep the credit high"
The bankers agreement, in case
you didn't know, practically put the
city in hook to the bankers. 1t ac-
tually permits j. P. Morgan and
Company to examine the books Of
the city at any time that that COM
pany or its appointed agents so
desire.
From all of the above it is abun-
dainty clear that the essential policy
of the LaGuardia administration, as
proven by its concrete deeds in it's
first year Of Office, has been one
Of carrying out the fundamental
policies Of the bankers under bar
rage Of demagogy. On the one hand
there has been the occasional dis
play of nose thumbing at the bank
ers; on the other there have been
the heavy body blows directed
against the city's masses in the
form of sales tax, wage cuts Of
municipal employees, slashing of es-
sential social services, police terror
against strikers and the unemploy-
ed and systematic strikebreaking
through arbitration" and the denial
Of elementary civil rights to work.
ers on divers occasions.
LaGuardia and the SIP. Right Wing
But all of this would have met
with far greater resistance from the
ranks of the labor movement in
New York were there not a new
element in the situation That new
factor was the systematic support
rendered the LaGuardia administers
ton by the right wing of the So
cialist Party and the official lead
ers Of the American Federation Of
Labor in New York.
1t is common knowledge that La
Guardia has had the closest TO rela-
tons with the right wing crowd in
the S.P. For years he was known
as labor lawyer He has even
picketed with workers during
strikes. He has fought" injunc-
tons and spoken against the sales
tax. Within the garment industry,
and particularly among the Italian
clothing workers, he was a power.
Prior to his election LaGuardia
got the support Of the City Affairs
Committee. dominated by Socialists
and liberals. Paul Blanshard mil
liant" Socialist and executive secre-
tary of the City Affairs Committee,
threw overheard his Socialist con-
victionS. such as they were, and
climbed aboard the LaGuardia
bandwagon. He wanted to play
power politics. Blanshard ex-
planned. He went into reaI-politik
with vengeance, writing most of
L Guardia's nice, pro-labor
speeches, 1t is said Along with
Blanshard came number of lesser
lights in the S.P.-Henry j. Rosner,
Beatrice Mayer and others,
Within the Socialist Party, sharp
differences between the fundamen-
tally middle-class right wing and
the confused proletarian elements
began to assert themselves. The
right wing began to gravitate sharp
ly towards LaGuardia, a more or
less natural political affinity The
relations that had been illicit be-
came open. Panken, Vladek and
Block became parts of the municipal
apparatus, appointed by the Mayor.
LaGuardia, gushed Abraham Cahan,
big gun of the Socialist right wing,
''iS one of ours"
This rapprochement of the right
wing of the SIP. and LaGuardia be-
came more apparent after the
Fusion candidate for City Control
Ter, Joseph D. McGoldrick, was de-
feated by the Tammany nominee,
Frank j. Taylor, in the recent cleo
tions.
Acutely conscious of the strong
third party developments in the
country the Mayor is grouping
around himself, locally and nation
ally, number of forces. His
speeches IN the West in support of
the Progressiyes, the LaFollette
brothers. his close relations with the
pseudo-progressives like Senator Nye
in Washington, all Of these are in
timately related and indicate the
direction in which the Little Flower
is travelling, albeit warily and in
a most circuitous fashion.
Unity Can Defeat Bankers, La
Guardia
For the workers of New York, this
political development poses num-
Der of tasks. In the space of this
article it is impossible to go into
this question more fully. However,
this can be said: the growth Of
the united struggles Of the workers
and small taxpayers of the city will
be the main factor in the political
resistance TO the LaGuardia- banker
policies. Toward the creation of
this united front the Communist
Party is bending its energies.
Whether a united front of So
cialists, Communists, trade union
lists, members of unemployed and
neighborhood organizations will
be formed that will find its re-
Elections in local Labor Party or
Workers Tickets in the Fall AL
dermanic elections is as yet hard
to say. The Communist Party
would, however, welcome such a
development. In a number of
working class neighborhoods in
the city-Brownsville, Ridgewocd,
the lower East Side-such situa-
ton is entirely within the realms
of possibility.
A united front-on the industrial
and political fronts-built up on the
basis of the workers mass organi-
cations will be tremendous factor
in the fight against the unholy,
anti-labor alliance of the right wing