Coal Code Is Signed, But Auto Code Is Dangerous To Organized Workers
Coal Code Is Signed, But Auto Code Is Dangerous To Organized Workers ' DRESIDENT ROOSEVELT has * signed the soft coal code and in doing so has ruled out Paragraph R which was fought by...
...So far, so good...
...The aim and effect, thus far, is simply to strike a note of defiance and demonstrate that the party still exists, rather than to make steady and definite propaganda...
...The principal activity of these groups consists in furtively distributing secretly printed or mimeographed leaflets...
...Hitler's Nazis Nervous Over Sick Regime HITLER'S capitalism in Germany shows that mere changes in the form of government cannot not out the depression disease that eats out the health of the capitalist system...
...All reliable reports indicate that the dictatorship rests upon decaying industry and finance and that the national ballyhoos will not satisfy even the rank and file of the Nazis...
...This is said to be the first court ¦ction taken by organized labor in the United States in its battle for the full rights to organize contained in Section 7 (a) of the Reeovery Law...
...Coal Code Is Signed, But Auto Code Is Dangerous To Organized Workers ' DRESIDENT ROOSEVELT has * signed the soft coal code and in doing so has ruled out Paragraph R which was fought by the A. F. of L and the miners...
...Referring tc , an article by a British journalist, . which has been widely rel printed or quoted on both sides <>f the ocean, and Ironi which ; it would appear that the Communist groups-of-five (I'linfmannscliaften) constitute a very numerous and all pervading organization, which might be expected to overthrow the Nazi regime almost any day, lie protests against what he deems a gross exaggeration, whose only effect can be to rouse false hopes and so cause needless disappointment...
...there was little work for the pickets on the day the vote was taken...
...The rebuilding of the party in this form, he thinks, is going on rather rapidly...
...The Neiier Vorw&rtg, says this writer, is very little used in Berlin...
...The Grand Economic Council was ordered to meet Wednesday to' see what Hitler's capitalist doctors can do about it...
...Complete failure to get the truce ratified leaves the strikers and the bosses in a deadlock...
...At a big mass meeting the weavers and rayon workers unanimously voted to reject the truce pending adoption of the NRA code for the industry...
...Labor Files Suit for the Right to Organize MILWAUKEE, Wis.—The Wisconsin State Federation of Labor filed a request in the circuit court here for an injunction to compel the Simplex Shoe Company to cease its efforts to prevent labor |rom organizing in accord with the provisions of the National Industrial, Recovery Act and the HRA codes...
...Perhaps another factor is that Berlin lies far from all the frontiers, and the difficulty of smuggling is increased by the distance...
...In Allentown, Pa., the silk workers of the Lehigh Valley district to the number of 10,000 voted to continue the strike last Sunday, and an effort of the bosses to re-open the mills the following day also proved a failure...
...Threatening, compelling or endeavoring to compel any of its •mployes as a condition of employment to join a "company union" >9 threats of discharge or loss of ••nployment...
...During the strike the Communists and the organization headed by A. J. Muste tried to "muscle in," but without success...
...The threat of a national strike would have probably prevented the concession...
...All is not lovely in Hitler's heaven and a social revolution, when it comes, will make a clean sweep of it...
...The Socialist government, he assured them, will continue to act in accordance with democratic principles, defending its opponents as well as its supporters to miry on peaceful propaganda and to organize for all legal purposes...
...In Scranton the strikers took the same course their comrades took FOUR-FOLD FASCIST DANGER IN AUSTRIA FACING SOCIALISTS CURROUNDED by German and Italian Fascism and facing three brands of reaction, two of them Fascist, at home, the Austrian Socialists this week offered to support the Dollfuss Government in Parliament and with their armed workers against the Fascist bands...
...Had the workers been organized in the automobile industry it isn't likely that the automobile corporations would have obtained the "merit" clause in their code that is so dangerous to the workers...
...The Social Democrats follow an altogether different plan...
...The strikers also decided to make a determined effort to get the workers in the silk throwing mills in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties to join the strike and picketing of the plants is effective...
...Strikes are so numerous that it is impossible to report but a fraction of them...
...The article seems to have been written not later than the first of September, Here's Rssample of a booster for The New Leader in action...
...to cover 12 subs...
...The five-man grouping, he says, cannot and is not intended to be a method of organizing great masses...
...The writer's impression is that the Social Democrats are concerned not so much to precipitate the fall of the Nazi government as to prepare the masses for united and purposeful action whenever it falls...
...The Labor Bureau adds the following comment which is to the point: "Perhaps it is well that labor has received a clear warning that it cannot afford to relax and wait for NRA to fight its battles for it...
...During the struggle in New Jersey, Socialist speakers from that state and New York City have responded to requests to speak at strike meetings...
...Big deficits in the budgets of the Reich, the states and the cities add to Hitler's difficulties, the moratorium will have to be extended, and inflation is feared despite the opposition of Dr...
...but the number of individuals so organized in Berlin is a matter of hundreds, not of thousands or tens of thousands...
...The Berlin correspondent of the New York Times cables that the •harp drop of German bonds made the ruling clique nervous, but this feeling was not permitted to be expressed in the Nazi-ruled press...
...Here Is a M.O...
...The struggle will continue till the workers have some agreement on conditions and wages that will prove satisfactory to them...
...They will back their government in suppressing any attempts to set up a dictatorship, and whatever force may be necessary for that purpose will be used...
...He recognizes also another reason—that the Berlin comrades do not in any case wish o begin using the Neuer Vorwarts until their organization has grown strong enough to distribute it in very large numbers and thus make a powerful impression...
...Now and then, also, between night and morning, numerous posters are put up or short legends arc painted on walls...
...The silk section of the industry is rife with strike activity...
...There are at least 50,000 workers on strike in the city...
...The party "will not keep out brown fascism only to let In green fascism," said Schaerff...
...The action was a fine example of labor solidarity as it was taken with knowledge that it was in conflict with the wishes of the NRA chiefs in Washington...
...Among these speakers were Norman Thomas, Joseph Tuvim, James Onesl, William Holm, August Claessens, Abe Relsky and Nathan Fine...
...Schacht, president of the Reichsbank...
...In New York City some 25,000 underwear workers and 5,000 drivers were on the verge of a strike, the latter threatening to tie up flour, bakery, grocery and furniture deliveries...
...The Labor Committee of Local New York has provided numerous Socialist speakers despite the many calls that have come for such service from striking unions in the city...
...Workers' representatives from other parts of the state pledged cooperation...
...In return for government support the Socialists demand that persecution of the party shall cease...
...This is, perhaps, all for the best, provided labor meets the challenge...
...On Tuesday it was reported that they might remain out till October 2. Workers and elhployers are now involved in a dispute over wages and hours in the printing industry in code hearings at Washington...
...The government is not strong enough to fight a war on two fronts against the National Socialists and the Social Democrats and should recognise the logic of the situation...
...On Tuesday 200 silk manufacturers from a number of states met in New York City and adopted resolutions urging the NRA to act immediately to end the strike and supporting the code presented on September 12...
...These meetings have been marked by an enthusiasm that inspired those wlio rendered this service...
...Capitalists and other big taxpayers are beginning to murmer about these circuses...
...Continued on Page Seven) Socialist Premier Sends Warning to Cocky Nazi* rtENMARK'S Socialist prime " minister, Thorvald Staunlng, recently went to Hadersky in Hie southern part of that little country, near the German frontier, where a somewhat formidable Fascist propaganda is being carried on, and made a very outspoken address, warning the peasants that they are playing with fire whon they enter into relations with Nazi agents from across the line...
...I In- threatened strike in the coal fields has been averted by the code agreement...
...It is a revival, in modified form, of the old "cells" or "nuclei...
...Bosrse securities have depreciated 40 to 60 percent below the April advance and only the intervention of the banks averted a financial crash...
...Other sections of the strike have shown a similar determination of the strikers...
...Organizing for The Overthrow I Of Hitlerism A WRITER in Het Volk re' |>«rts on the underground activities of Hie revolutionarj . parties in Berlin...
...The injunction seeks to enjoin the Simplex Shoe Company from: <§*<—In any way whatsoever intimidating by language or sugtestlon of loss of employment to those of its workers who may want ¦ help organize or join labor organizations of their own choice...
...They work continuously and intensively in as large areas as they are able to cover, by regular distribution of reading matter in which the Hitlerite government is systematically criticized, its crimes exposed, attention called to its broken promises, and Socialist principles are explained and advocated...
...The offer came from Dr...
...Such work docs not go on simultaneously all over the great city, but now in one district and now in another...
...Workers in many states are watching this struggle...
...But the administration surrendered on the automobile code...
...About 6,000 shoe workers are on strike in the great shoe center of Brocton, Mass., and the struggle also involves a contest for union control between two unions...
...Workers are recovering their fighting spirit after several years of beating down of labor standards...
...This is not only our interpretation but also that of the Labor Bureau, Inc., in its monthly review...
...That clause would have permitted an "interpretation" of the labor section of the code in the interest of the mine owners...
...Silk Workers9 General Strike Brings Revolt Against Unsatisfactory Truce W7HAT is probably the greatest " labor upheaval in the textile industry is in progress...
...The petition also seeks to have the injunction heard before Circuit "«dge Otto H. Breidenb»ch...
...The strike is waged in opposition to a fiveweeks' truce which was arranged by strikers' representatives and the manufacturers in Washington, and votes taken this week by the strikers failed to break the solidarity of the workers...
...The plants were picketed the day befBre and in the afternoon of the next day the strikers assembled in Paterson to vote on the proposed truce...
...Ih any event, they use mostly papers secretly got out in Berlin, entitled the Red Drive, the Marxist, and Information...
...Its main focus is in Paterson, N. J., and from there it extends to Pennsylvania and other states...
...Rlvoire, Chicago...
...The Danish masses, ho declared, are not going to submit to government by machine guns, nor allow the formation of private armies...
...Receipts from the post, telephones, railways, and municipalities continue to decline and two weeks ago a sharp fall of German bonds caused the Nazi boys alarm...
...These groups include only known and trusted party members— largely under new leadership, of course, since most of the old leaders, if still alive, are now in prison...
...Schaerff declared that the government had not won the conservative masses and that the Nazis had won big gains while in the frontier districts only Nazis and Socialists remained of the former parties...
...This code does not use the words "open shop" but it contains a "merit" clause that is dangerous to the organized workers...
...These big affairs cost many millions of dollars and are paid for out of government funds...
...Not only, however, will it act democratically itself, It will also prevent opposition elements from using undemocratic methods against it...
...In the long run the workers are likely to advance further under the banner of a strong, aggressive and unpstronized labor movement than behind the shield of government protection...
...The semi-official, paper, Polilikal Corretpondenz.&e-' nounccs the meeting as "high treason...
...The living standards "of the working class continue to decline while . foodstuffs like butter, milk and meat have shown price increases ranging from 25 to 30 percent...
...It declares that "employers in this industry may exercise their right to select, retain, or advance employes on the basis of individual merit, without regard to their membership in any organization...
...The manufacturers also changed their announced intention of trying to resume operations on Monday, and...
...Schacrff, Socialist leader, in the upper Austrian house, with only the Socialist members present...
...To divert attention from this situation the Nazis have arranged for another huge ballyhoo demonstration, this time for the peasants...
...The Labor Bureau finds it difficult to explain this surrender except on the assumption "that it felt that the codification of the automobile industry was so essential to economic recovery that it was preferable to accept a bad rode rather than face a prolonged •struggle to obtain a more satisfactory one...
...About 3,000 strikers voted in Paterson, the big hall being so crowded that all could not get in...
...Workers are maintaining their picket lines and the strikers are following a policy of determined "watchful waiting...
...Whatever promises for a new deal for labor that are inherent in NRA, it is constantly becoming plainer that they will be brought forth into reality only through the instrumentality of organized labor activity...
...in Paterson and Allentown...
...He explains this fact partly by the lingering antagonism between the Berlin comrades, who were at first loath to accept the notion of becoming an illegal party, and the refugee executive in Czechoslovakia, which recognized the necessity for such action much jarlicr...
...The national strike committee opposed the proposed peace terms and by an overwhelming vote the workers decided against the truce...
...The 30,000 striking miners in Pennsylvania hesitated to return to work until assured that .he terms of the coal code are satisfactory to them...
...On Monday of this week the manufacturers had hoped to get workers to return in Paterson and other cities under the truce arranged by the National Labor Board at Washington...
Vol. 16 • September 1933 • No. 13
