The Threat to the Labor Movement/Section 8
Right Wing Treachery Towards Sacco and Vanzetti.
ON the heels of the drive against the left wing in the unions comes the following statement sent out by the press service of the "Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee." It is addressed: To Whom It May Concern:
The defense committee is constantly questioned as to the relationship existing between the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee with the International Labor Defense, the Communist Party, and the so-called Sacco-Vanzetti conferences, because of their propaganda and collection of funds made in the name of Sacco and Vanzetti.
This committee specifically states that the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee has no official relationship with the International Labor Defense, the Communist Party, or the Sacco-Vanzetti conferences, which we understand were organized thru the International Labor Defense.
We wish further to state that the defense committee has repeatedly urged them, since the International Labor Defense began to raise funds in the name of Sacco and Vanzetti, to send accounts of their activities and also accounts of the various Sacco-Vanzetti conferences. To date we received no satisfactory replies to our many letters regarding the purpose of the aforementioned organizations, or an accurate account of funds received and disbursed by them. We have been given to understand by the International Labor Defense that there are a number of Sacco-Vanzetti conferences thruout the country from which We have never received any report. This was the reason why the committee has repeatedly advised friends of the Sacco-Vanzetti case to communicate directly with this office. Fraternally yours,
SACCO-VANZETTI DEFENSE
COMMITTEE.
It is not hard to guess the source of the inspiration for this ambiguous and incorrect statement, which, neverless, deals a blow at the nation-wide movement for liberation of Sacco and Vanzetti and at the proposed national conference.
But we do not have to confine ourselves to a guess. The New York Times has already published as a news story the correspondence between the Sacco-Vanzetti committee and the reactionary "Committee for Preservation of the Trades Unions."
It may be stated here that the International Labor Defense is under no obligation to account to the "Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee" for any funds it may raise, but that its receipts and disbursements and duly audited financial statements are published monthly in its official organ, The Labor Defender.
It can be stated further that the International Labor Defense has forwarded sums as large as $1,000 at a time to the "Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee," and has published photographs of the checks.
As in the cloakmakers' strike and the Passaic strike, the reactionary elements in and out of the labor movement have been willing to sacrifice the victory of the workers, to send Sacco and Vanzetti to the electric chair by sabotaging their chief support in order to do something they think will damage the left wing.
Undoubtedly these elements have 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.