Right to Strike under NRA
RIGHT TO STRIKE under NRA Lines Being Drawn On the Vital Issue tjrilH the Labor Day speeches out of the way the hattle over •* the place of lalior in the New Deal is getting down to...
...The right to strike is an nalienuhle right of free people to protect themselves against exploitation and oppression...
...Do you want a powerful Socialist Party...
...S. M. Neistadt, State Secretary of the Socialist Party, sent us this message: "So far as the National Edition of The New Leader is concerned, I think it is a splendid idea and it should go over big...
...In Connecticut the State Executive Committee Inf the Socialist Party approved the National Edition on August 13, and five days later the State Secretary, Arnold E. Freese, sent us the following letter: "The value of a powerful Socialist press, supported by class-conscious workers and farmers and responsible to them, cannot be over-estimated...
...10,000 Mourn Slain Pickets in Philadelphia PHILADELPHIA...
...But we have not ended the parade of the states in support of the National Dollar Kdition...
...The ..ig battle over NRA boils down to'the right to strike...
...I personally pledge at least 25 Virginia subs within a year...
...Coleman was first elected Aldcrman at Large in the 1910 Socialist landslide...
...James D. Graham, State Secretary of the party, has for a year or two urged publication of the national edition Jim sends this letter: "Congratulations...
...In 19112 he was elected Alderman again...
...May it become popular and reach a circulation of a quarter of a million before many moons...
...If he wins his bi ttle with NRA he will have struck a blow at the labor move oent, for by sucn a victory he will encourage other employers, large and mall, to refuse to treat with l.uionb...
...While an Alderman, Coleman fought through an ordinance compelling contractors doing city work to operate under an eight-hour day...
...Say it with subs...
...Into their solid ranks came a speeding, dldly Ca.eening covered truck, loaded with scabs...
...He will pay ine wages he wants and worn his men whatever hours In wan's to work ther.i, and he will take dictation from 10 or.e...
...Other states arc to follow and we now ask our readers to look at the sub blank below...
...To those already reported we may add Maryland, Washington, New York, Virginia, Montana and Connecticut...
...This time the pickets were not to be restrained, an 1 for half an hour a fierce battle raged...
...Seeking to avert public indignation the mill company, under cover of a few meaningless face-saving clauses, has capitulated to the unions' demands...
...defeated In 1914, he went back to the Chamber in 1910 and served until 1922...
...Leo Welsh, State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Washington, sends us this message: "One of the greatest obstacles we have to hurdle is lack of circulation for Socialist papers and magazines...
...Tribute to the sacrifice made by those two workers was also paid by Adolph Hirschberg, president of the Central Labor Union...
...Wilson Is former Socialist mayor of Berkeley, Cal., and was Socialis tcandidate for greis In 1932...
...Speaking of t'.ie cigar makers (for this union includes all branches of the tobacco industry) the writer •ays, "We have gone back to the 4ays of our grandfathers"—that is, to the level that prevailed before My union existed in the trade...
...Thin came a second attack fr th scabs...
...Employers everywhere are challenging the ri"hl to strike under NRA...
...The Old Dominion, once the proud "Mother of Presidents" in the early clays of the republic, also enlists...
...We will give the Pacific Coast first place in the roll cal...
...May the National Edition be a blazing torch pointing out to the millions of toilers that Socialism is the only way to a secure and abundant life...
...Milner fell unconscious, dying at a hospi'.al a short ti: ' later, bar ly u fjw seconds before his terror-stricken mother reached his ward...
...The workers take the tobacco loaf t-> their wretched homes and bring back cigars to the employer...
...The strike, in the last analysis, is the only power which ney ca effectually usa in protecting themselves...
...pickets of 5,000 workers and wholesale arrests of 100 o more were fairly common occurreaces...
...That is why tl i whole country is watching his battle with NRA with loch breathless interest...
...President Grt n of the American Federation of Labor says, "Working people cannot surrender the right to strike...
...A few minutes later a volley of shots tore into the strikers' ranks Norwood dropped dead...
...We had planned to report on the work of some of the Key Men, hut that will have to wait till next week...
...He was loved as a sincere, modest, completely devoted Socialist who had the affection and confidence of everyone...
...Speaking at the funeral services three days later, Emil' Rieve, national president of the American Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers, and member of the Socialist Party stional labor committee, charged the guilt of 'he murder directly to the bosses who armed the scabi, and the police who knowingly permitted them to carry the guns...
...Important labor officials and Socialist Party members and city officials were pallbearers for "Billy" Coleman...
...On Thursda.' morning, September 1, several thousand hosiery workers arose an nour early to do sympathetic picket duty for theis comrades at the Cambria mill liefore punching tht clock in their own nills, amor.™ them were Clement Norwood, lather of three small children, and Frank Milner, only 10 but already a leader among his fellow-won.ers...
...Ford makes it clear that he is ;oi.cerned about the "right" of employers "to run their own business in their own way...
...had been ill a long time, and had spent three years in Colorado in an effort to recover his health...
...At the sa.ie tinu a victory of NRA over 'on will by no mea . necessarily imply a victory for Labor...
...Billy" Coleman was born In Sioux City, Iowa, in 187K, and camo to live in Milwaukee in 1899...
...But in many other places attempts are being made tu cripple the workers in their right to strike...
...Montana is the barony of the copper kings, where many a fierce class war has been fought in the last four decades...
...The Parade of the States for The National Dollar Edition | AST week we permitted George R. Kirkpatrick, Socialist candidate for Vice-President in 1916, to occupy this space...
...Despite the fact 'hat other scabs were Inown t be armed also the pickets reformed their ranks and continued to patrol the mill n kbss formation...
...And in many places, in spite of NRA, in spite of (ienernl Johnson, in spite of the presence of labor officials on the Advisory Board of NRA, the workers are compelled to light for the mere right to organize even now...
...In the meantime use this sub blank unless you have received a booklet of sub blanks and receipts...
...Nearby Maryland, Mencken's much advertised "Free State," answered the roll call several weeks ago...
...Your National Edition will be of great service to the working class movement...
...He was a painter, active in his union and at one time he served as Its president...
...Henry Ford will pay food wages only if he wants ;o and because he feels like it—an I for no other reason...
...Several young girls received fractured skulls...
...Coleman served In the legislature for two terms, and was confidential secretary to Mayor Hoan, and Deputy City Clerk at other times...
...this week...
...Coleman, who was 55 years old...
...Encouraged by the bosses and strike-breaking detectives in the plant they hurled window sash weights and other heavy objects from upper floor windows at the pickets in the street...
...For it i.- known that Ford's main quarrel is not with the Federal government but with th;> principle of collectiv- bargai.img...
...May it also be a constant source of increased knowledge, inspiration and enthusiasm to those who, by joining the Socialist Party, have pledged themselves to work unceasingly to make the Socialist Party a nowerful organization and Soc' m a reality in our day...
...Ho underwent an operation in July, and since then had been unable to leave home...
...s'.rugglc wee c. ago...
...Stirred U a fighting pitch by the premeditated recklessness th<y turned the truck on its sid...
...SOCIALISTS MOURN "BILLY" COLEMAN MILWAUKEE, — Socialists, both old-timers and newcomers in the movement, were saddened at the recent death of William Coleman, Socialist Alderman, former Assemblyman and at one time county and state secretary of the party...
...He wns also active and influential in the Central body of his city and in the State Federation of Labor, having served both bodies in important official capacities...
...They fought the issue through to the United States Supreme Court, |but were defeated...
...The first round went to the workin, with the re:ignation of Dudley Cates "rom the Recovery Administration, but the employing class s by no iceans through...
...Police bruta'ity and the bosses' stubborn greed narked this strike as a "ke...
...For even if Ford is beaten and compelled to sign the code he may so manipulate things that c will deal with a company, "yellow dog" "union" instead of a bona tide in ion of the workers in his taithi...
...Even injunctions by i i ai i emai v judges like Selah K. Strong and Meier Steinhrink, cannot stop them...
...The blood of those murdered workers is more upon the hands of the capitalists who gave out the guns and the police who tolerated it than upon the hnnd' that pulled the trigger...
...Today -he fight centers around Henry Fo*d ard his continued refusal to sign the Code...
...Only by organized might ran the workers win...
...His letter was so fine, so charged with the revolutionary outlook that is so much needed that we ran his letter in full...
...The New Leader covers a field of its own and at one dollar per year it is a bargain and should be in every party member's hands...
...In every section of the country the lines are being drawn, and lahor is now in a real light over whether or not NRA implies the right to organize, to strike and to picket...
...j. stttt wilson ill STOCKTON, Cal.—At the conelusion of an address at an openair meeting here, J. Stltt Wilson was taker, ill, and was obliged to return immediately to his home In Berkeley...
...Vhile the picketers in the front ranks leaped to safety their enraged ci mrades out of re truck's path showered with sto.es and finally brought it to a stop...
...RIGHT TO STRIKE under NRA Lines Being Drawn On the Vital Issue tjrilH the Labor Day speeches out of the way the hattle over •* the place of lalior in the New Deal is getting down to brass tacks...
...David George, State Secretary of' Virginia, writes: "The National Edition at one dollar is an idea I have advocated for five years...
...Massed in solid ranks, 10,000 strong, tne hosiery workers paid homage Sunday to two of heir martyred comrades, killed by a scab's gun in the bitter class war centering about the Cambria Silk Hosiery Mi ' strike...
...Though only a few hundred strikers were involved the whole strength ot the powerful Philadelphia hosiery workers' union was mobilized for th fight...
...LABOR SINKS IN HITLER'S REICH Notwithstanding the German Tobacco Workers' Union has been "gUichgesehaltet," recent issues of Hs weekly organ, the Taftafc-Aroeitsr, contain information which shows how nuch worse the condition of the workers has become Under the Hitler regime...
...Under i>no circumstances can the American Federation of Labor and its alliliated membersh'i surrender the right to strike lor the purpose of securing higher wages, improved conditions < f work, and the right to organize and barge n collectively...
...Workers in strongly organized centers, and in cities like New York, with a large and agressive Socialist >arty, have little difficulty in exercising that right, even though occasionally a man like Grover A .Whalen, department store executive and Nit A director, may question the right to strike and picket...
...The sweating system is now in full force...
...Man, wife and -hildren, by worklug Jar Into tii" night, are able to •arn from thirteen to sixteen marks (13.25 to $3.75) in a week—and of eourse they do not get even this •tarvation wage every week, as the •misery of workers in other indu' tries has cut down the market fo •Jfars...
...It It rtpirted that recently a "secret committee of six" visited Secretary of the Interior Irkes and told him that they represented 500,000 manufacturers pledged to fight the closed union shop...
...in fact, they a,'e just starting to fight...
...Alex McKoown, president of the Philadelphia local of the hosiery workers...
...William Leader, vice-president, and Leo Krzycki, member of the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party...
...Be assured of our best wishes and loyal support in your forward-looking venture...
Vol. 16 • September 1933 • No. 11
