To Fight for the 30-Hour Week
To Fight for the 30-Hour Week Textile Workers Call Upon I A. F. of L. to Consider a General Strike PPOR the first time in American ir history a general strike of the Jsntire labor movement is a...
...HOAN PAMPHLET WINS EDUCATORS' PRAISE Robert M. Hutchins, president of Chicago University, and Florence Curtis Hanson, secretary-treasurer of tho American Federation of Teachers, have each written to the Socialist Party, praising Mayor Daniel W. Hoans's new pamphlet, "Taxes and Tax Dodgers...
...If you were attacked by a gangster, Comrade Thomas, would you hesitate for a moment whether to have a capitalist policeman arrest him and a capitalist judge sentence him...
...I am certainly glad to have Mayor Hoan's pamphlet," Mrs...
...I presented a plan for more efficient activity and a reorganization along neighborhood branch lines, and the response to my suggestions was enthusiastic and immediate...
...Taxes and Tax Dodgers" may bo obtained by mail for 10 cents from the literature department of tho Socialist Party, 640 Randolph St., Chicago...
...Jefferson City, 29-30...
...I was given the opportunity to go along with three other comrades to visit Ray Ncwkirk at the Broadacres Sanitarium near Utica...
...Plans for setting up a federation composed of silk workers throughout the industry were completed, and a meeting of all silk unions will be called some time in January for this purpose...
...Indianapolis, 15-16-17...
...At the same time, I have also been a member of the International Fur Workers' Union of the American Federation of Labor for many years...
...We believe that the mass of fur workers adhere to various political faiths and that they will with zeal and determination continue to fight back the attempts of the Communist Party to establish their dictatorship in the fur industry...
...It is an admirable one from which I have learned a good deal...
...Flint, 4-5...
...Claessens' Tour Meetings for Comrade Claessens continue as follows: Erie, Dec...
...Paul, 16-17...
...and the national headquarters of the Party will be available at 60c each, H6.00 a dozen, from the Socialist ifarty, 549 Randolph St., Chicago, p from The New Leader...
...Socialist Song Book A book of words and music for 72 Socialist songs, edited by Sam-Mi H. Friedman, labor song authority, will be published this month by the Rand School Press...
...Madison, 11-12...
...Milwaukee, 8-9-10...
...gained control of the school board and elected sbt of the twelve members of the City Council...
...The executive council adopted a resolution urging the American Federation of Labor to call a special convention for the purpose of considering the advisability of a general strike, to enforce the 6-hour day and the 30-hour week, with no reduction in weekly income...
...To Fight for the 30-Hour Week Textile Workers Call Upon I A. F. of L. to Consider a General Strike PPOR the first time in American ir history a general strike of the Jsntire labor movement is a possibility...
...And it is needless for me to sny that your grave error is actuated by lack of familiarity with the facts rather than by ill-will...
...I addressed a well-attended local business meeting on Wednesday and I was agreeably surprised with the fine group of members we havo here...
...Chicago, 8-9-10-11-12...
...Local very small and yet fairly active...
...Cincinnati, 18-19-20...
...A special edition taken by the Y.P.S.L...
...With only a slight improvement in industrial conditions a splendid spurt is inevitable...
...The preliminary work so far is largely of a social nature, with the educational director putting on a one-man show in each town she visits...
...I am pleased to report that our Syracuse local is in better condition than it has been in a long time...
...Columbus, 24-25...
...Across New York State By August Claessens IINEMI'LO YMENT and bitter poverty are rampant along the v/ Mohawk Valley...
...Kansas City, 26-27-28...
...They are not yet doing big things...
...In Schenectady on Monday...
...President Thomas F. McMahon announced that his organization Would certainly answer the challenge of the National Association •f Manufacturers, and would fight bitterly against what is now discovered to be sn organized attempt to defeat the purposes of the National Industrial Recovery Act and drive labor back to a defenseless position...
...Make, your gifts this year count for the Socialist Cause...
...I am just a plain rank and filer who depends upon work in the shop for a livelihood, and as one of the masses who knows the situation quito well I feel in duty bound, Comrade Thomas, to tell you that with the best of intentions you are mistaken when it comes to the Furriers' question...
...Two of Labor's three school trustee candidates W«re elected...
...In Calgary, a city of 80,000, despite the vicious anti-Labor compaign of the two daily newspapers, the C.C.F...
...Do you know, Comrade Thomas, that thugs are daily brow-beating fur workers for the only reason that they refuse to join the Communist Needle Trade Workers' Industrial Union...
...Ninety-five percent of these workers, especially those in the out-of-town shops, have never known anything about union before...
...Here, also, my two meetings were poorly attended...
...I met the local comrades at two party meetings...
...Here, also, no attempt was made to arrange a meeting...
...The American Federation of tabor has been asked by one of its constituent bodies, the United JTextile Workers of America, to call d special convention for the purpose of considering a general strike to enforce the 30-hour jstek...
...An excellent group of comrades carrying on under great difficulties...
...Dayton, 21-22-23...
...The United Textile Worker*, in all of the codes, has asked for the 30-hour work week, and it believes if all of the affiliated onions in the American Federation of Labor come together, this reduction in hours can be secured...
...RANK AND FILE FUR WORKER TAKES ISSUE WITH THOMAS We have received the following communication from a party member whose name cannot be made known becauue, of fear of being attacked in the fur market section of New York City and it is withheld for that reason...
...If they really go to work in the building of branches in various parts of the city on the pattern of Bridgeport and other cities, Local Syracuse should soon be on the up and coming...
...This is tho season for gifts to your friends...
...Akron, 22-23...
...Use the blank below...
...But 1 am sorry to state that in the matter of the Furriers' Union you arc unfortunately on the wrong track...
...He appears to be improving in health and his spirit is wonderful in spite of the recent loss of his mother and his confinement in this hospital...
...South Bend, 13-14...
...Please accept my thanks and pass along to Mayor Hoan my appreciation for letting me see a copy of his pamphlet," writes President Hutchins...
...Some of my shoj-mates are afraid to walk in the street with me for fear that they will be punished for fraternizing with a Socialist...
...It was voted, also, to communicate with General Hugh Johnson, Administrator of the National Industrial Recovery Act, asking for representation on all textile codes, pointing out that at present, in all parts of the country, violations of the code are threatening to disrupt the purposes of the Recovery Act...
...Toledo, 24-25-26...
...General indications are that things ore growing worse...
...However, they have a fine big headquarters, a good Y.P.S.L...
...The much heralded NUA has hardly affected industrial conditions up here...
...Minneapolis, 18-14-15...
...Detroit, 27-28-29-30-31, January 1. Lansing, January 2-3...
...Next stop Utica...
...Louis, 31, February 1-2-3-4-5...
...The executive couuncil, therefore, at its quarterly meeting at the Bible House, New York City, devoted an entire session considering and devising methods to secure the 30-hour week in the textile industry, and also to have Section 7-A of the National Industrial Recovery Act, relating to the collective bargaining provision, amended by Congress, in order to offset the attempt of employers who are ¦sing technical means to avoid •nion recognition...
...Do you know that there are hundreds of fur workers whose bodies will forever bear the marks suffered at the hands of those so-called "revolutionists...
...I nm now in Rochester...
...His devoted comrades are cheering him and the fine Workmen's Circle women comrades of Utica send him fruit occasionally...
...Circle, a Rand School class and a Forum.| They plan an active winter season along with a new organizer and a personal canvass of their 1,600 enrolled Socialist voters...
...Obviously, I had little chance to accomplish much...
...Pittsburgh...
...Hanson writes...
...Do you know that strong-arm men are raiding our shops and with the use of knives are coercing the workers to go to the Communist union...
...26-27-28...
...Grand Rapids, 6-7...
...Beloved by all who appreciate his sterling character, his fine long service and devotion to our Party, his illness takes him out of our ranks just when we need him so much...
...The next two days I stopped in Syracuse...
...No meeting arranged, local inactive...
...What agitation could not accomplish stern economic conditions Save brought about...
...Cleveland, 18-19-20...
...My husband and I have been members of the Socialist Party for the past twenty years and we have been subscribers of the New York Call and later to The New Leader since its appearance...
...It is the best thing out beyond a doubt...
...A number of comrades devoted the "two honest hours" to getting subs, which was suggested last week on page 3.| We now have a suggestion for every reader...
...We, the fur workers, are unmercifully persecuted, terrorized and thrown off oui jobs because we refuse to submit meekly to Communis, domination...
...Educational Campaign for New Union Members The Children's Wash Suit, Knee Pants and Novelty Workers' branch of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America is starting an educational campaign among the thousands of young workers, mostly girls, who came Into the union during the recent organization drive...
...The production of the factories in the land increased 40% in the past 10 years and the actual work decreased only 14...
...I have never held office in that organization, paid or unpaid...
...Comrade Ncwkirk is one of the rare souls of our movement...
...Omaha, 21-22-23...
...They are afraid to undertake anything for the good reason that there is so little hope for success...
...nevertheless it is growing and has fine potentialities...
...The resolution explained that the people of the United States cannot buy food and shelter in the midst of plenty, when necessities of life are rotting before the eyes of those who are forced to go hungry and live in hovels...
...I In Edmonton, a city of 86,000, Labor elected its candidate for Mayor and its complete slate of four Aldermen...
...What better gift can you make to a friend and what better service to spreading your Socialist philosophy can you render than to send The New Leader for a year to your friends...
...Our locals are small and in the vicious circle—no funds and no activity, and no activity and no funds...
...Later on classes will be started in the city, A four-page mimeographed paper is being published monthly for this branch...
...Unless the Civil Works program brings some relicf.a more terrible winter is in store for folks in this sad part of the country...
...And the Executive Council of the United Textile | Workers, a bulwark of the A. F. of L., realizes that unless a working week of not more than thirty hours becomes the rule there will be disaster...
...Gertrude Weil Klein, secretary to the Management of the Joint Board of the Amalgamated, is Educational Director...
...On Thursday I went to Cohoes and spoke to a small group of comrades...
...Springfield, February 6-7...
...Lincoln, 24-25...
...Our organization is weak and ineffective...
...CANADIAN LABOR WINS TWO MORE CITIES The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, Canada's Labor party, scored encouraging gains in both Calgary and Edmonton in recent •lections...
...All in all, our Party up New York State is not very large or very active...
...A recent meeting with Fred I Henderson was poorly attended and left a deficit...
...I, myself, have been ostracized because of the fact that I read The New Leader, and have been driven out of tho fur market for carrying with me a copy of The New Leader in which your very column dealing with the Furriers' Union appeared...
...Industry has become so efficient that, unless there is a sharp slash of the normal working week, there will be a permanent condition of unemployment...
...With great admiration 1 have followed your career in the Socialist Party since the date of your admission and always had implicit faith in your sincerity and devotion to our movement...
...Dear Comrade Thomas: It is with deep regret that I have read your column in The New Leader of December lHt, dealing with the situation in the Furriers' Union...
...Happy to report that our local here is also in a much improved condition...
...16-17...
...Sioux City, 18-19...
...I do hoope that many more comrades will keep in touch with him...
Vol. 16 • December 1933 • No. 25
