The Fur Workers' Side Of the Injunction Case
Rohman, Richard
By Richard Rohman The Fur Workers' Side Of the Injunction Case IN last week's Issue Norman Thomas, in "Timely Topics," criticises certain alleged actions of the Fur Workers' Union of the...
...His assailants calmly knifed him in various places...
...The convention adjourned with the singing of the Internationale...
...The tollective labor agreement between the A. F. of L union and the organised manufacturers, employing the bulk of the 10,000 furriers in the trade, does not expire' until next January...
...By Gertrude Weil Klein The New German Woman And German Womanhood rpO dwell on what is happening in Germany is to invite a state of permanent melancholy, And yet I find it impossible to wrench myself away from the foreign dispatches in the newspapers...
...It is to these women that Hitler says, "I have no use for women in politics...
...By Richard Rohman The Fur Workers' Side Of the Injunction Case IN last week's Issue Norman Thomas, in "Timely Topics," criticises certain alleged actions of the Fur Workers' Union of the American Federation of Labor in its present efforts to rehabilitate the union and 10,000 furriers...
...Presently Communists, organized in a dual opposition union who did not have such an agreement, made overtures to the bosses...
...Sunday morning the convention began real work and immediately tackled its main business...
...It is/to be borne in mind that this- affects all railway, telegraph and telephone workers, as in Belgium these services are operated by the state...
...The Communists offered bargain rates...
...Under the corrupting influence of women, he warns, Germany will return to the "idolatrous cult el humanity, neighborly love, slave emancipation and pacifism...
...The bosses bad boasted for a year that I they had violated the agreement...
...I for one And i t impossible to sit in judgment at this safe distance and say what our German comrades should or should not have done...
...Can Comrade Thomas suggest a defense for them...
...Perhaps the most remarkable of the achievements of the Republican era was the transformation of the German girl...
...TheHery day Comrade Thomas' thesis appeared in these pages Communists appeared in the Supreme Court as voluntary co defendant* with the bosses, seeking abrogation of an injunction which attempts to enforce an enlightened labor agreement That, of course, was not class-collaboration Nor is the fact especially aignificart that two of the accompanying Communist affidavits against the A. F. of L. union were signed by men under indictment—one for perjury in a homicide case, the other for felonious assault...
...It was not Comrade Thomas (though no one questions his personal courage) but this obscure furrier who was waylaid on a dark street near his home by five assailants and beaten into unconsciousness...
...I met thousands of them at the Olympiad in Vienna two years ago, and again in Berlin...
...Hy a vote of 44 to 14 the convention went oa record against united action with the Communists or any of their affiliates...
...We shall give you a union label, and you will, have to pay less for labor...
...George E. Roewer, chairman of the organization committee, presented the plan for future work which was adopted...
...That stopped them...
...When I think of what the ascent of Hitler must mean to such women as Toni Pfulf, to the thousands of women who have progressed more in the fifteen years since the Weimar Constitution and the rise of the Social Democrats than their ancestors progressed in the last fifteen centuries, I understand what deep despair must be theirs...
...Pfulf, for years a deputy in the Reichstag, ia one of such who passed out after two suicide attempts...
...Well, the Communists had been conducting a reign of terror for eighteen months, the general unemployment in the trade, the depression, lack of funds made a series of shop strikes a formidable task...
...An innovation ia the formation of a veterans' committee...
...The man considered himself a good union man, his union enjoyed as decent a labor agreement as can be obtained under the present phase of capitalism...
...to enter domestic service, servants are exempt from the payment of unemployment insurance premiums, their income taxes are reduced below the average level...
...Hundreds of women were elected to the state legislatures and thousands sat on the municipal councils...
...But, then the poor furrier who was stabbed to death for belonging to the A. F. of L. union had no choice as to systems, nor the victim of the assault either...
...Though ToniPfulf came from a Catholic family ef the army-officer class and was a teacher by profession she threw in her lot with the Social Democrats even before the war, and waa elected to the Reichstag during the Republic...
...It is a sad day when the integrity of a union is questioned, because the employers have no defense against it, and can make none...
...The foolish furrier, thinking hit union has a collective labor agreement with his employer specifying minimum wage scales, overtime pay, the closed shop and other concessions supported by good trades union and Socialist thought, was on his way to work...
...Resolutions were passed by the convention demanding- the release of Tom Mooney and the Scottaboro boys...
...The afternoon preceding Comrade Thomas' dissertation on trade unionism, the foreman of a union shop was assaulted by two thugs in the fur market, one of whom had the bad grace to "squeal" and name as his employer an official of the Needle Trades Workers' Industrial Union, the Communist opposition union...
...Literature sales are to be pushed vigorously, according to the plans adopted...
...Deal with us instead of the A. F. of L., they said...
...The convention instructed the incoming state committee to organise demonstrations for Tom Mooney...
...Never had they been offered class-collaboration that looked so attractive...
...say the fa-wed couple ** a loan of Pde is a Job' s ! ve up her * wffl finance «P«*ial taxes •rtelor girls...
...Samuel Shore, manager of the Fur Workers' Union, waa so confident of his ease that he offered, at the recent Central Committee meeting of the Socialist Party, to turn the destinies of his union over to Comrade Thomas...
...This is the Nazi program for German womanhood...
...MASS...
...It provides for time and a half pay for overtime...
...Comrades Vladeck, Panken, Wecbsler, Feinstone, Claessens and others spoke and several hundred men and women marched behind the hearse through the East Side...
...They had no defense...
...The women delegates were the most ardent fighters for the Child Welfare Act of 1922 and women were responsible for the social hygiene act of 1923 which the treatment of venereal diseases | compulsory and abolished regulated nrnnt itnl ion Jnat hofnrs Hitler M girls were 11 universities «n were gain' s being swept "oom" of the •t encouraged •Udren...
...But he had read somewhere about constitutional liberties and that Socialists are for constitutional liberties, and that we all stand for the closed shop and for enlightened labor agreements...
...The union sued out an injunction against the bosses...
...of L. furrier waa being carved up on the streets of Jamaica in front of his modest dwelling...
...SAM EPSTEIN DEAD , The Socialist and .Labor movement of New York City lost one a its most faithful workers in the death of Sam Epstein, member of the Party since 1906, a member in the Downtown Jewish Branch, and speaker in many East Side campaigns...
...They cut the appropriations for public education by 20 per cent, reduced the provision for men crippled or made invalids in the war front 80,000,000 to 20,000,000 franca, and take off five per cent from the pensions for aged workers and from the salaries and retirement pay of public employees...
...no longer the pleasingly plump m&dchen, but straight, slim young athletes, students and workers...
...The Catholic trade unions, as well as those affiliated with,the Belgian Labor Party, are raising vehement protest against this inhuman policy...
...And all of them keenly alive to their responsibilities as citizens and builder* of a better world...
...Comrade Thomas has made much of the fact that the employers decided not to defend the action in the union's injunction suit...
...Especially when an opposition union was supplying labor for less and a so-called "union" label to boot...
...Unfortunately, the Socialists alone have not a majority in either house, and, with two or three exceptions, the socalled Christian Democrats voted slong with the Conservatives and the Liberals for the reactionary proposal...
...He waa also the organizer for the Retail Dry Goods ClerksUnion and very active in the Work* men's Circle...
...Editor...
...Here are the facts as I know these...
...A state bulletin, in the form of a half page in the American Guardian, is to be mailed to all English speaking members monthly...
...The •tent need of n»va twenty...
...It was also decided to have an assistant secretary whose duty shall be to relieve Comrade Lewis of office detail...
...Less than a week before our Socialist leader wrote, an A. F. of L. furrier met a similar fate...
...Employers, on the other hand, are authorized to claim tax exemption for new help —the more servants in the household the lower its taxes...
...We shall supply workers, members of our union, cheap...
...The New Leader appeared at the Moment when an A.F...
...When the National Assembly of the young republic met in Weimar in 1919, forty-one women deputies sat in this auditorium, the largest number of women in the legislature of any democratic country...
...Even in appearance the German girl had changed...
...Rosenberg, the power behind the madman's seat, says, "Feminine influence ruins the state...
...Nothing wrong so far...
...This proved too much for capitalist cupidity and greed...
...Victim of Assault Alas for him...
...The following were elected to the incoming state executive committee: Olen Trimble, Joseph Bearak, Paul Wieks, Mary Dickson, H. McGinnis, Leslie Richards, Charles Kimball, Joseph Massidda, Carl Walt, J. Epstein, and Albert Sprague Coolidge...
...Note.—The Editorial Committee has decided that as this matter is in the hands of a party committee nothing .more of the controversy should appear in The New Leader...
...My deepest sympathy goes out to those comrades who find themselves in such an incredible impasse that j they face bondage, Imprisonment and possible murder—or suicide...
...Alfred Baker Lewis waa unanimously reelected' state secretary...
...It provides for the limitation of the notorious contractor evil...
...Affectionately known as "Pop" Epstein, he was a plain, lovable comrade, unassuming and active in every undertaking...
...Of course, these are crimes under capitalism...
...A pledge to fight against the spread of Fascism was voiced in a convention resolution...
...PARTY REJECTS ANY "UNITED FRONT" WORCESTER, Mass.—The two" day annual Socialist party convention held here June 24 and 25 at Runeberg Hall in this city was attended by 100 delegates, and in striking contrast to conventions of recent years the majority of the delegates were young men and women full of enthusiasm and determination to put Socialism across in the Bay State., The convention was opened Saturday by state secretary Alfred Baker Lewis, and the first session was spent in organization and the election of committees...
...Ant hi the lower house and then ia the Senate, every ft*, cialiat asembar waa present assi voted ia the negative, except tw* who were wins a* to their beds by serioas illness...
...This agreement calls for the fortyhour week...
...The funeral services were held at Garlick'a Parlors on Grand Street'last Tuesday...
...The most important feature of the plan provides for the dividing the state into six districts with a full time organizer in each...
...A budget of $8760 for the state office was approved of by the convention...
...The persecution of Jews, the outlawing of the Socialist Party, the relegation of women to the status of breeders or domestic servants—a dismal chapter...
...America's culture is so low because of woman's rule...
...She performed valuable -work as a member of the Penal Law Commission and she also served her constituency devotedly, often spending night after night on trains in order to reach the poverty-stricken proletarians in the Bavarian forest districts...
...If there is any, I'll scrap my Socialist faith...
...The first decrees appeared early in June...
...He was advised it might not be healthy for him so to do...
...At this writing, his life is despaired of...
...Finally, like all good labor agreements, it provides for the closed shop...
...It hurts, though it does not surprise me, that some of out German comrades are taking the suicide's way out...
...Now, in his dissertation, Comrade Thomas admits there are instances when injunctions sued out by labor are justified, but the injunction obtained against the Associated Far Coat and Trimming Manufacturers is "verboten...
...The agreement went into effect early in 1932...
...Being wise after the event is so easy...
...The surgeons took seventeen stitches in the poor devil, a number over the left eye...
...The Federation established its own special Mooney Committee to work for Tom Mooney'a release...
...There are others...
...The provision for unemployment relief is also diminished by the new regulations...
...It was quite natural that the young women should have turned to the Socialist movement by the thousands...
...Ton...
...When the bill giving the government plenary powers was brought to a veto, altar long and bitter debate...
...BELGIAN MINISTRY TRIES DICTATORSHIP CAME 1*HE Belgian sslnistry, having * carried through Parliament late ia May a law giving it power to legislate hy decree for a period of three months, has lost no time La beginning to use this exceptional power to benefit the propertied classes at the expense of the workers...
...Sprawled on the ground in this dark Bronx street, he waa an easy victim...
...The news that comes to us through more direct channels adds to the general gloom...
...Next, by taking for granted that which must be proved, Comrade Thomas repeats s charge made in Communist quarters that the A. F. of L. injunction is directed, not against the employers who are named, but against workers who are unnamed...
...Call a series of shop strikes to enforce the agreement or obtain an injunction to preserve the contract...
...And Dr...
...he did not consider himself a scab and he had gone to work...
...Quit Comuniit-Controlled Conference DETROIT.—The Detroit Federation ofiLabor voted to withdraw its delegates from the Mooney Defense Conference and urged its affiliated locals to do likewise because of Communist control of the conference and other actions that have nothing to do with the defense of Tom Mooney...
...It establishes minimum wage scales that compare favorably with any organised industry in America...
...Let us proceed...
...Scores of individual manufacturers, members of the association, violated the terms of the collective agreement they had with the A. F. of L. Two Alternatives The A. F. of L. union was faced by a simple alternative...
Vol. 16 • July 1933 • No. 1
