THE THREAT TO THE LABOR MOVEMENT
sciously for reasons which these sheets state frankly. The New York Evening Post says that the present reactionary campaign is:
. . . . one of the most hopeful events in the history of organized labor … THE WISEST LEADERS OF AMERICAN LABOR UNIONS ARE AWARE THAT THE VERY FOUNDATION STONE OF SUCCESS IS THAT THEIR AIMS AND METHODS SHALL BE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE AMERICAN SPIRIT. AMERICAN WORKINGMEN ARE, FIRST OF ALL, AMERICANS WITH AMERICAN SPIRIT AND IDEALS. Some of their more important leaders, notably William Green … have taken pains to emphasize this fact. (Emphasis mine.)
So this is the old struggle for "100 percent Americanism" in a new form. It is interesting to note that in its defense of labor officialdom The Post manages to use the word "American" four times in two lines. In addition to being "the wisest leaders" the official elements are patriots of the purest type in the estimation of the capitalist spokesmen. The Post continues:
The local unions are to be congratulated upon their resolve to assume the aggressive against Communism within their ranks. When Communists, or other groups attempt to manipulate American labor organizations for political ends, there is only one course to take—open war.
No group of persons in this country can make it hotter for the Communists than the labor organizations. IF THE LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS GO INTO FIGHT WITH THE SPIRIT THEIR LEADERS ARE DISPLAYING, the battle will be over almost before it has begun.
But there is one drawback. It is that "the local organizations", that is, the workers, are not following "their leaders" in this fight.
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
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