The Threat to the Labor Movement/Section 19

by William Francis Dunne

Political Parties and Trade Unions.

THE Post in the above extract echoes the plaint of the socialist and official trade union press i. e., it infers that the Communist workers seek only to capitalize union struggle for the interests of their party without regard for the immediate interests of the union and its members. This charge is formulated by The Post as an "attempt to manipulate American labor organizations for political ends."

One will search the files of the official trade union and capitalist press for the last twelve years without finding any denunciation of the republican and democrat parties for their open corruption of unions and union officials for their own interests—interests which are those, not of the working class, or even a section of it, but solely the interests of the capitalist class of this country.

Have the huge sums of money spent in debauching the electorate in general and the trade unions in particular by Frank L. Smith of Illinois, whose campaign was financed by Samuel Insull, head of the open shop movement in that state, called forth any denunciation of his party as a party making an "attempt to manipulate American labor organizations for political ends?"

Not so one could notice it. On the contrary, the president and secretary of the Illinois State Federation of Labor and the chairman and secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor openly supported Smith before and after the exposure of the Insull slush fund.

What is true in Illinois of the republican party is true in New York of the democrat party—Tammany Hall. It is public knowledge that, the great majority of the New York unions, including certain sections of the needle trades unions, where the Communists are now charged with "attempts to manipulate for political ends," are appendages of the Tammany Hall political machine.

President Ryan of the New York Central Labor Council, and the executive of the Council itself, in the New York Times for Jan. 16, defended Tammany Hall's "industrial squad"—the "bomb squad" of the police department which specializes in slugging pickets, arresting strikers and suppressing working class activities.

John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America, used his position openly in an attempt to swing the union in support of Coolidge. Gompers was for years, and Green is now, a wheelhorse of the democrat party chariot.

Allow us to say, to the capitalist party henchmen holding positions in the unions, and to the New York Times, The Post and other of their capitalist defenders, with all the politeness that we can muster, that we Communists were not born yesterday and that we understand you very well indeed. We understand what you are saying and so do many thousands of workers who are not ready to incur the blacklist in an open struggle with you just yet.

For what you are saying is just this:

The only parties that you will tolerate in the trade unions are parties of the capital class and parties like the socialist party which instead of fighting you in the interests of the workers, does the dirty work that you cannot do in the drive against militant unionism, because of its ardent desire to be taken close to your bosom and given a more equal share of the profits the capitalists dispense to you as a reward for leading the labor movement into the camp of its enemies.

The Washington (D. C.) Star sounds the note of "peace". It is against Communists because

One of the principles of Communism is to promote conflict between workers and employers. Strike settlements are not sought in a spirit of adjustment. The performance in New York was obviously designed to continue the turmoil.

It is becoming so unusual for a union to strike in America that a whole theory is being based on the absence of strike movements in which American workers formerly engaged. The inference is that strikes are unnecessary and that only the callous Communists will inflict such struggles upon the masses. This is the spiritual justification of the drive against militant unionism but the theory is as false as its principal proponents are deep in collusion with the bosses and the political parties of the bosses.