THE THREAT TO THE LABOR MOVEMENT
prevailed upon the Sacco-Vanzetti committee, by threats of withdrawal of the official support which has been so weak and grudgingly given, to issue such a statement. It is almost like signing the death warrant of Sacco and Vanzetti.
Here is a concrete example of what it means to the labor movement when the self-styled "Committee for the Preservation of the Trade Unions" puts into practice its slogan of:
The labor movement shall lend no assistance to any undertaking which directly or indirectly shall include the Communists. It shall be war to their finish.
But it is not war "to their finish"—meaning the Communists. In this particular case it will mean the finish of Sacco and Vanzetti if the masses of workers are fooled or coerced into passivity by this drive of reaction. Communists are workers and they cannot be banished from the ranks of the working class. Such tactics merely aid the enemies of the workers.
To the strikes of furriers, textile workers and cloakmakers, mentioned before, we can add the great protest movement for Sacco and Vanzetti, likewise organized and led by left wingers, as one of the examples of rank and file militancy which is in direct contradiction to the worker-employer co-operation policy of officeholders.
As this is written news comes of the action of the general executive board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers, headed by President Sigman, declaring the 25 weeks' strike of cloakmakers illegal, vacating the offices held by members of the New York Joint Board, regularly elected by the membership; vacating the offices held by members of local union boards who support the left wing and appointing hand-picked committees to take their places.
This action in the face of the mass support of the New York Joint Board, elected as a result of a membership revolt against right wing policies and tactics, is accompanied by an onslaught on a parade of the rank and file by police and gangsters.
Such occurrences as these, having a strong fascist character, can result only from the application of a policy which finds powerful support, not only in trade union circles, but from the capitalists and their press and from the socialist press.
The United Front of Reaction—The Official Socialist Press.
THE united front of these elements against the workers who are fighting for militant unionism can be shown to exist beyond reasonable doubt. Their own utterances convict them.
In the public justification of the campaign against fighting trade unionism, there is a unanimity of expression in the socialist, capitalist and official trade union press that can spring only from a common policy.
The New Leader, "a weekly journal devoted to the interest of the socialist and labor movement," used a column of editorial space in its December 2 issue for an attack on the left wing. Said the New Leader:
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