National Government Receives a Shock
Henderson, Fred
By Fred Henderson "National" Government Receives a Shock Bye-Election at Rolherham Has More Than Local Significance — The Masses Eagerly Returning to Their Loyalty to Their Own Labor Party...
...These conditions prevailed not merely in Lynn, Chelsea, Salem and Boston but in Haverhill, Amesbury, Newbury port, and the shoe centers in Maine and New Hampshire as well About two years ago the National Shoe Workers' Association started organization work in Lynn and felt st rung enough a few weeks ago to attempt a general strike in that city...
...A Recovery (3) The lecovery of its lighting Socialist spirit by the Party—of which the Leicester conference gave such unmistakable evidence, and to which George Lanabury's leadership of the present group in [ the House of Commons has given such splendid expression—'has been ' steadily persistent during the past year...
...Furthermore, the success of the Union has boon sufficient to en courage it to tackle the leather in duatries, and mass, meetings have been called, and members are seeing signed up among the leather workers in Lynn and Pea body...
...It would be risky, of course, a bass this wide generalization as to the present position of the Pant solely on the result of a sing)t bye-election...
...Lester Shulman was sent immediately by the New England District office, and despite all the handicaps of a (mall town's antagonism towards the "City Slicker,M ho succeeded in pulling the workers out oa strike, and stopping the wags cut The employer, however, appeared at a meeting of the workers backed ap by all the local celebrities, and ' with tears in his voice and literally streaming down his face, pleaded with his workers not to Join any ' "outside" organisation...
...is spreading into New Hampshire, as well...
...For purposes of comparison, you will note that 1923 was the election which put the first Labor Government into office...
...It is one of scores of constituencies which Labor had previously held, but lost at the last general election...
...And, as things tarsal out, the very overwhclmingneai of our Parliamentary defeat proud to bo a real blessing...
...Since then, Union sentiment and labor conditions have been at a low ebb, the workers have been dis' couraged and down-hearted, and wage cuts were given practically at the pleasure of the bosses...
...28,787 12393 Beyond BxpeetatJraat) We were prepared for victory...
...The advent of tke Union, aad the workers* response to its call to a strike is an encouraging sign to those who feared that unemployment and wags cuts had taken the fight sot of tha workers...
...aft merely to office for its own tab) this time, but to real power fa* the fulfillment of real purposes...
...The strike proved successful beyond expectations...
...Blind ra...
...sad it wss fought from first to last as a nationally important test of the degree in which British working-class faith In the Labor Party had recovered from the devastating injury done to ft, first by the disheartening record of the MacDonald Labor Government and then by the MacDonald-capltallst alliance against us in the so-called National Government...
...As for its bearing upon the genera) British position, the points to be noted are: (1) There are at least a hundred Jlritish constituencies in which all the circumstances and cnnditioriH are closely comparable with these of Rotherham...
...K my !a*t letter 1 told yovt that a vacancy had ju»t been announced in the Parliamentary representation of Rotherham...
...Just look at the comparative figures again for a moment, and you will see how dramatically catastrophic the crash is...
...So far as the industrial constituencies are concerned, it is clear that the spasm of national Imbecility which rocketed the present Government into power is over and done with...
...Let iiic give you the comparative figures, and you can judge from them for yourselves us to the sweep of the tide which is uow carrying us back, not merely to our previously held position, bat well beyond it...
...I Crash of I'restige (4) The crash in the prestige and repute of the so-called "National" Government is evea more complete than our own recovery...
...Despite Shulman's eloquence on the other side, the workers voted by a majority for a company union, but he was able to leave a nucleus of memberi of tha National Shoe Workers' Association to lead any subsequent strike if the employer should again attempt a wage cut...
...The consequences of that hectic hour of electoral panic still remain with us in a Parliament packed to the doors with a reactionary majority...
...It fits into what month ? month becomes a more ckarjf visible movement of re mark ska recovery...
...The last series ef important shoe strikes in the women's shoe indus' tdy took place in 1929, under the I auspices of the United Shoo Work ers, a non-A...
...The moment the vacancy •was anaosnced it was recognised by all parties—our enemies as well as ourselves—that the fight had much mors than s merely Rotherham significance...
...But the mere announcement of the result will not have given you a real understanding of its immense significance and its bearing upon the general British position...
...VY« have not only won hack a/seat kast in the debacle We have won is bach by a greater strength than has ever before been manifest, even at the highwater mark of any of our previous successes...
...Kulheiii.no la a working-class constituency in the heart of the great industrial province of the West Riding of Yorkshire...
...I do not say that it hi [even yet completely eradicated...
...In Norway, Maine a wage reduc 1 tion was imposed upon the work ' ers, and our .Socialist local in Lewiston telegraphed far an organizer to work up a Union there...
...With the result, as., these figures show, that a large proportion even of its own crowd in tha constituencies, people still too reactionary to rally to our constructive Socialist standard, are seared at it and are holding off from any further support of it...
...tha MacDonald group...
...The Socialist Party in Cambridge, Boston, Lynn, and elsewhere sent men and women from our unemployed members and students to picket the yellow dog contract shops where picketing by the workers or union members would almost certainly have resulted in drastic injunctions...
...The result was surprising...
...They have been offered a 10 per cent increase by the manufacturers there, but are holding out for more...
...Allowing for a little less here and a little more there, it is reasonable, on all the known, facts, to take it as the measure of a general working class recovery...
...On the evidence of these 1 Rotherham figures, taken as an [index to the general movement of [working-class opinion, it would seem that the suspicion of the sincerity of the Party which was created by the record of MacDonald's two years of sterile office holding is now practically wiped out from tie saliad of the rank and file in the constituencies This has been the worst aad the moat persistent of our handicaps The rankand-file do not readily forget such a disillusionment of their hopes as the MacDonald regime inflicted upon them, and it is an altogether I wholesome thing that they should [not readily forget...
...We had to live that down...
...26V937 17,636 1931...
...But the moral et Rutherhan is being confirmed W many other ways...
...but its snpanrt in the country has erasable* away into nothing...
...Overwheistiag Victory The result is net simply a vletory...
...It has revealed itself as having neither understanding nor courage...
...In Chelsea twothirds of the shops have been signed up with a 10 per cent increase and recognition of the Union, in Kast Boston a 15 per cent increase has been secured, and ia Boston some 7,060 workers struck, and soon secured recognition of the Union, abolition of the yellow dog contracts aad an agreement an the part of the manufacturers to accept a wags increase if any should he swarded by the State Board of Arbitration...
...But the willingness of these old Yankee shoo workers ia Maine finally to revolt against intolerable conditions is a straw that shows possibilities of organization and of successful strike activities if necessary, even in communities heretofore regarded as unbreakable, •pen-shop strongholds...
...Rotherham does not stand hf itself...
...Labor not only obliterated as at effective fores in Parliament, fart damaged in its morale and prettirt by its reword in office during previous two yearB Our first task, obviously, wti the task of reconstruction witah the Party...
...Under the auspices of that Union, strikes have broken out in Amesbury, Newburyport and Lawrence, where small increases have been won, and 1 this revolt of the shoe workers...
...For ons thing tha yottow...
...In Haverhill tke Shoo Workers' Protective Union, among whose members Union sentiment a year ago was at a low sbb, have enthusiastically followed the example of the Lynn workers...
...and ii is within tha general and encompassing testr many of tacts from sll quarts* that you may take it as marldaf tha final omergoace of the easS* mane hare from the shadow of aW mat general ekectioa...
...2) The supposed split in our ranks, of which the disaffiliation of the I.L.P from the Labor Party was the outward and vsiible sign, has made no discernible impression whatever upon the maaa of working-class electors...
...And ia these circumstances you will appreciate the supreme importance in' it...
...with no idea whatever in its stupid head except to cut down working class standards of living and social services in every direction...
...Nothing could be more emphatic than the rejection by the working-class electorate, revealed in these figures, of the invitation to substitute faction fighting for the unity and i "lis,, i, dm ion of the Party...
...action was installed in power wit, a majority so vast as ts b» practically s monopoly «f p,r< liamentary representation, mn...
...Shoe workers who had been cut to the bone came out in mass revolt against intolerably low wages, the boys and girls who were working for three aad tour dollars a week and were participating in their first strike, joining enthusiastically with veterans of many a hard fought labor struggle, who were receiving wages about one quarter of what they received a decade ago...
...Here are the figures for the last are elect ions, beginning with 1923, when ws first won it...
...For the nag and lis had been true to our Sjh cialist faith all through: the paler of the two years of sterils mm was never a policy which sroM from tha rank-and-file...
...The strikes spread almost immediately to Chelsea, Salem, and Bast Bostoea...
...A New Phase faking all these factors in the situation together, it is pretty dear that what this Rotherham result reveals to us is the passing of British politics into s new phase...
...Tha position at (hat raonvent looked pretty hopeless...
...F. of I.., but nonCommunist organization...
...and we have re-established oar Socialist purposes more clearly than ever with safeguards againat say possible repetition in the future of their betrayal by false leadership, The phase of concentration upon the task of our own internal recovery may, with all this, be regarded as now practically sa> pleted...
...dag contracts which had been spresaTtrig like wildfire in tha women's shoe industry, have boon almost entirety wiped sua...
...took control and asserted Ik authority over policy and sdmhv istration, ft became evident to tit mass of people throughout III country that the basic strength *i the Party remained unshaken;last it had learned its lesson and kaf surmounted its difficulties...
...By Alfred Baker Lewis Shoe Strikes Break Out In Old New England TPHE Massachusetts shoe workers have followed the example of the Detroit automobile workers in striking against intolerable conditions ami with fair stR-cess, considering hard times and i general lack of employment...
...The nationwide results of the municipal sal civic elections a month or two sgo gave us a quite i unmistakable augury of the way in which thing* were shaping...
...But the past year's record of Party administration and the restoration of our Socialist purpose to the dominant position in our policy, from which MacDonald's timeserving and office-worshipping mentality displaced it, has now for practical purposes removed that obstacle from the path of our further advance...
...The 1989 [ strikes resulted in a partial victory in Lynn, but defeat in Boston and Chelsea...
...All the settlements have been eVmecratkaily arrived at, being submitted ia every case to a vote of the shop's crow before they were twrepttfd...
...U Is snip a littls svbj . year ago sines the general aha, tion...
...And mo, indeed, it has proved to be...
...There are no special local circumstances which would make Rotherham exceptional...
...therefore, give you the full facts about it...
...1929 the highest tide of Socialist success in our record so fsr...
...it has merely drifted, without s plan or a purpose effective against the economic confusions of the times...
...Let me...
...Practically ev-1 ery shop was siarned up, yellow dog contracts abolished, the worst paid shops received as increase of 16 per cent, and others agreed to put a wage increase to arbitration before the State Board of Arbitral •ion which has on the whole generally been favorable to the workers...
...You will have had news of the result two or three weeks ago, and will have noticed the splendid win achieved by Labor...
...It was sa index to a very large number of similarly canditinned constituencies...
...It was inposed upon the Party by tat t rumpery vanities and ambitions at...
...but this goes beyond what we had dared to expect...
...By Fred Henderson "National" Government Receives a Shock Bye-Election at Rolherham Has More Than Local Significance — The Masses Eagerly Returning to Their Loyalty to Their Own Labor Party —Party's • Morale Rising...
...The new phase into whkl the movement now definitely varices is that of the march of M Reconstituted forces to power...
...ami suggested ihai you should look out for the result, since it wan likely, as a test of the recovery of the British labor Party, to be the most important political event here since the debacle of the la«t general election...
...Ana Us purge was complete enough to leav* the rank-and-file unistaahi by any surviving false leadsrsb)) ia its task of rebuilding its power, Rebuilding That phase of rebuilding hu been much briefer than we roakj have dared to hope a year ago, But when, at the Leicester eu> ference, the rank-and-file definiteh...
...22,834 !:t.:.y« Now----tf...
...and 1931 the debacle following noon the fit i lure of the Mac Hons Id Government to give any real Interpretation to the hopes of 1929: Labor Vote Capitalist ' jh 192S......16\983 1924------ 18,860 15,712 1929...
...With the result that while we still a> main numerically impotent in Parliament, ws have our old strength in the country restored to us...
...it is an overwhelming victory...
Vol. 15 • April 1933 • No. 14
