Teacher's Union Officials Resign Their Posts
Teachers' Union Officials Resign Their Posts Biemiller Denies Charges By Lefkowitz on Teachers By Andrew J . Biemiller |%R. ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ' • ^ a r t i c l e in last week's New Tif • d r r...
...It has all the possibilities of ranging the Socialist Party and the trade unions of the country into opposite and opposing camps if Socialists take a wrong course, and some have already taken that course...
...By their encouragement of the disruptive left-wing forces in opposition to the Administration, by their organization of a "united front," they have gone over, hook, line, and sinker to that element in the Teachers' Union which has prevented the growth of the union into one really representative of the 36,000 teachers of the city...
...Biemiller professes to believe in, but which he did not follow at the convention...
...We are in sympathy with the p r e s e n t administration of the Teachers' Union and agree with their analysis that certain "militant" Socialists, by giving an air of respectability to the disruptive elements, and by giving a false notion of Impartiality in the present crisis, have prevented a solution of our intolerable factional problems...
...We expected the National Labor Committee to have more knowledge of the situation in the Teachers' Union and in the American Federation of Teachers...
...The intolerable factional condition existing in the Teachers' Union daring the last ten years and the unconstitutional National Convention practices of the American Federation of Teachers during the last two years have caused the "open split" which the National Labor Committee is now beginning to recognize...
...P H J J and their "unholy" etth» OjM with our left-wing groups to**"* it meant the death of the outstanding fighting militant taa«h*r» organization in the coasripfp cause that was clearly state...
...Karl Pauli, organizer for the Socialist Party of Pittsburgh will be the instructor...
...It provided that a committee of three, one to be a labor leader not a member of the A.F.T...
...The testimony before the Executive Council, which Mr...
...Linville and...
...The labor party resolution was very poorly drawn...
...When it comes to facts one may always expect them to be distorted in the Post, But on the score of demagogy and intellectual dishonesty t h e Post is only a little behind the most scrurrilous Communist sheets and the Hearst press...
...Biemiller, however, adds that "Freedom of discussion of union policies and tactics has always been the cornerstone of trade union democracy...
...3. The acceptance of an illegal proposal which they could not even finance would have merely complicated and delayed action...
...We want the answer: Signed: Esther S. Gross, Charles Haskell, Algernon Lee, and Maurice Levine...
...The cheap, sensational, capitalist sheet undertakes to teach us what we ought to do and say about matters of vital interest and importance to a labor organization...
...Along with many others it was referred to the incoming executive council...
...Many delegates of our largest locals who withdrew from the Cleveland c o n v e n t i o n have expressed fear that the action of the American Federation of Teachers in the Local 5 matter plus certain irregularities in convention elections and procedures will definitely injure the movement for unionizing the teachers in areas like Portland, Oregon, St...
...To take the other view is to raise a smoke screen and defend actions that will destroy the union...
...Moreover, it comes with poor grace for members of our party to object to the Teachers' Union trying to eliminate persons of this type when our own party has had the same trouble with persons who have acted in the same way...
...ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ' • ^ a r t i c l e in last week's New Tif • d r r on the recent convention of the American Federation of Teachers is, to put it mildly, full of misstatements...
...The New Leader was, I think, unfair to the Socialists w i t h i n the Teachers' Union who voted against what amounts to a program of expulsion of* Communists from the onion, for being Communists—remember that the N.E.C...
...Helping the Communists T H E gag used by William Randolph Hearst when he attacks progreaeive legislation, seeks to discredit s labor measure or t o rouse the mob against radicals is to denounce them as Communist...
...It is as old as the Communist International...
...First, the offer he discuses and knows only secondhand was never presented to the convention for action because the Executive Council rejected it at a subsequent rump meeting to which the friends of Local No...
...Several delegates, including the writer, went to the chairman of the resolutions committee and informed him that if the resolution reached the floor we would lead a fight against it...
...This is a strange accusation from Brother Lefkowitz, who has never been a member of the Socialist Party and who, at the Teachers' Convention in Milwaukee two years ago, told the writer that he would not join because he was too far to the left...
...No action was taken on the motion by the council...
...At that time certain leaders of the A. F. of L. were trying to raise a red scare...
...We are convinced that only revocation of the charter and reorganization could save Local 5 as an effective instrument of the trade union m o v e m e n t among teachers...
...I have a little knowledge of the way in which over a period of some years Communist or near-Communist tactics within the New York City local of the Teachers' Federation blocked constructive action and the orderly growth of the union...
...Lefkowitz revealing the situation in the Teachers' Union, as "the Right Wing Socialist organ...
...Hearst" was the title of the editorial, which attacked Dr...
...Trade union history is littered with the wrecking activities of Communists...
...The reverse is true...
...Biemiller ignore* the Dewey Report of 1933 on the factional situation and its findings, the futility of all past compromise, the history of wreckafe the left-wingers'"have left ia their wake, and the fact that the selotion offered by Local 5 was the result of 13 years of experience and analysis by its ablest leaders...
...He who doubts this should read the Dewey report...
...She is co-author with her husband of an important book on "Lawless Judges" that will shortly appear...
...Our position is the position Mr...
...The final point in Brother Lefkowitz' article which I wish to discuss is his assertion that those delegates who voted against his wishes are anti-A...
...of a compromise proposal of the Executive Council which would have saved Local 5. What are the facts...
...it will also menace any progress in the organization within the A. F. of L. of professional workers...
...Uniform penalties should be provided for all members guilty of ANTI-UNION ACTIVITIES whether the members be Republicans, Democrats, Socialists...
...Dr, LefkowitzMakes Reply To Biemiller Criticisms By Abraham Lefkowitz Andrew J. Biemiller, in answer to my indictment of the "militant" Socialists at the Cleveland convention of the American Federation of Teachers, ignores practically every basic charge and bit of evidence in my article in The New Leader last week...
...That is good Socialist and good union philosophy and ethics...
...We have never understood that loyalty to tin A. F. of L. meant unquestioning acceptance of the personal views of its officers...
...If there are two or more, each claiming allegiance of some members, then the parent sovereignty set op by the members becomes paralyzed...
...The Teachers' Union never at any time questioned the right of members to hold any political opinions...
...In the face of strong anti-Communist policy of the American Federation of Labor the "militant" Socialists advocated union with the American League Against War and Fascism—a known Communist affiliate, and also supported possible political collaboration with the Communists...
...The New Leader, well knowing the penalty to be reaped by a wrong course, remembering some sad facts in the history of the Socialist and trade union movements in this country, takes its stand against intrigues and disruption in the trade unions...
...This new and uninformed addition to our ranks shows a complete ignorance of the fact* relative to two resolutions—-one relating to the American League Against War and Fascism and the other with reference to independent political action with all political groups...
...Bat Lefkowitz' adamant stand, plus the "red baiting" telegram received from William Green (which even Lefkowitz admits was a mistake even though it was undoubtedly inspired by one of his chief lieutenants) brought the issue on the floor in such a manner that one could only vote either for or against revocation...
...The quotation is as follows...
...I trust that it will always continue...
...At the last election they received the support of two-thirds of the members...
...Note: See article by James Oneal in this issue...
...Lefkowitz for control, though now when they want to resign, he is one of the n*»st ardent in asking them to retain power...
...He put the Local 5 issue on the basis of personal desire of Dr...
...Yet the National Labor Committee admits that Dr...
...But Socialists are to be praised, not condemned, who within the union insisted that it was a violation of sound labor as well as Socialist principles to deal with the situation by dissolving a local in order to reorganize it without Communists or near-Communists...
...Incidentally we wish to point out that the Post circulated a downright falsehood when it declared that Dr...
...In the words of Voltaire we say to the Communists, "we disagree with what you say, but we will defend to the death your right to say i t " [See article by James Oneal on this quotation.] In the debate on the floor of the convention I stated unequivocally that I would aid anytime in...
...he ignores Me...
...Instead, a "rump" meeting of the Executive Council suddenly reported the telegram in open session and proceeded to confuse the situation— a confusion made possible by the speeches of the "militants...
...Freedom of discussion of union policies and tactic* has always been the cornerstone of trade onion democracy...
...To seek to eliminate such anti-social and anti-union creatures is not to expel them because of their beliefs but for their activities...
...His accusations are absolutely unfounded.^ On the contrary we Socialists were fighting to prevent a serious disruption in the union and were acting in accordance with official pronouncements of the party...
...We deny its accuracy...
...The person who makes that statement is a coward if he does not make the charge in writing and face those whom he accuses...
...With the sole purpose of destroying the leadership of Local 5, Maynard Kreuger forced through a "rump meeting" of the Executive Coundl dishonestly assembled on Wednesday, August 28...
...Socialists have never believed that anyone should be excluded from a union on the basis of his political belief...
...For one I know that I am still a delegate to the Milwaukee Federated Trades Council in good standing and that l a m frequently called to aid a large number of local unions in various capacities...
...Free speech does not mean the right to be a cad or a scoundrel...
...Biemiller ignore* Mr...
...JO ESTABLISH JUBILEE CRAWFORD STORE In announcing p l a n s for a "Jubilee' store, to be erected as a means of celebrating a 70CA increase in volume, Joseph Levy, president and founder of Crawford Clothing Company, took occasion to thank, his small army of workers for their whole-hearted cooperation and undiminished loyalty...
...Mrs...
...It met with many objections...
...The three groups will then turn to destroy each other...
...Advt...
...What does the record show...
...Biemiller and Thomas know that this is not something unique in the trade union movement...
...Where the Socialist Party Stands on Union Issue • y J a m e s Oneal T H E R E is a quotation in Andrew • J. Biemiller's article from a statement adopted by the N.E.C...
...of the Socialist Party in September, 1934, which cannot be ignored...
...Biemiller never troubled himself to read, and the evidence of repeated sabotage presented on the floor by Mr...
...statement really makes it read as follows: Uniform penalties for all members guilty of antiunion activities EXCEPT COMMUNISTS...
...When I lived in the East I was also active in numerous situations...
...Any person who knows the composition of these groups knows that this is true...
...This whole situation is so vital that it is necessary to speak out...
...I t seems to me that service to the movement is the chief test of loyalty...
...It never reached the floor...
...Both Green's telegram and the speeches made by the official spokesmen for Local 5 clearly raised the red scare...
...The average reader who had no other source of information on that convention save Brother Lefkowitz' article, would draw the impression that an unholy conspiracy had been formed by Mrs...
...convention as opposed to organized labor...
...The "militant" Socialists have allowed themselves to be used as "window-dressing" and have paraded as independents by left-wing groups when in reality their united front with the left-wing made the situation much worse...
...What remains will be Stalin Communists, Lovestone Communists and "militants...
...Pan], Minnesota, Chicago, 111...
...And The New Leader headlines over Lefkowitz's article, I am told, he now disclaims as different in implication than he intended...
...iJw*and now stand aghast at we <*f^ sequences...
...Verily, fools thrust themselves into places where more experienced and better informed persons are reluctant to tread...
...The "militant" Socialists have organized a faction similar to the : other left-wingers, thus tacitly endorsing a condition that led to the crisis...
...5 had autonomy, and the only way the Executive Council could deal with the situation was to have the convention revoke the charter—the very request the "militants" opposed...
...We should never penalise members because of their political, economic, or religious views...
...In the case of the Teachers' Union an endless civil war has been waged within it by Communist groups for years...
...Well they may-—if wW have a conscience...
...With reference to the resale taon for independent political action I have been informed that many "militants" supported i t 'She only objection was not to the intent bat to the wording which seemed to some of them to be "too strong" It was then referred to the Executive Council which contrary to it* duty—took no action...
...Many others are equally active in the labor movement...
...Bat it does seem rather brazen for a paper like the Post, which stands for a goody-goody capitalism, a mild, wishy-washy, reformist circulation-hunting sheet, to assail as allies of Hearst persons who have devoted their lives to the labor movement and have a record that will stand open and honest scrutiny...
...This year is expected to be the greatest in Crawford's history...
...Helping Mr...
...Lefko•vritz also implies our actions were in violation of the party's position on the trade anion question...
...Biemiller not only ignores my basic charges but submits the following arguments: The Compromise Proposal 1. That the adamant altitude of the writer prevented the adcptior...
...For these actions the "militant" Socialists and their leader, Maynard Kreuger, must take the blame for the undoubted loss of goodwill and support of the American Federation of Labor so sorely needed in these troubled days...
...Those who, unlike the Post editors, have had experience in the labor movement and in the Socialist Party, know what this means...
...The United Front Brother Lefkowitz* assertion that "the militants led the fight for a union with the American League Against War and Fascism and independent political action with all left wing groups" is an absolute misstatement...
...The Executive Council at the beginning of the session <sm unanimous that the Local 5 matter should be kept off the floor of the convention until all bushiest had been transacted...
...There cannot be more than one sovereignty in any organisation...
...He insisted that the charter must be revoked and a new one issued to his associates* "Sad he been a little more cmciliatorv there is no question that this plan would have been adopted...
...We leave it to the Post to hunt circulation where it wants and to use all the demagogy its lack of intelligence and conscience may require...
...Biemiller makes the unsupported assertion that "one of my lieutenants" was responsible for the Green telegram, which was responsible for the demand for revscation...
...Comrade Levenson is active in party work, especially in the Women's Committee and in Rand School work...
...Biemiller persists in befuddling your readers in tile face of our records from which ample testimony was submitted concerning the suspension of leftwing leaders, and the censure of the groups by the Teachers' Union for anti-union conduct, still remains a mystery...
...From trustworthy reports and J observations made at the convention, we are certain that the National Labor Committee has accepted a biased view of the facts...
...The "militant" Socialists cooperated with the other left-wingers even though they never offered to disband their factions...
...Throughout his letter Mr...
...I have a great appreciation of what men like Henry Linville and Abraham Lefkowitz have meant to labor's cause in New York State...
...Thomas Questions Lefkowitz Stand By Norman Thomas A continuance, still more an intensification, of a split in the American Federation of Teachers will be not only a great loss to the organization of teachers at a critical time when the support of teachers is necessary in the struggle against fascism...
...everybody loses—including the factional groups...
...Emphasis is mine...
...Civil war and disintegration are the results...
...delegates to the A.F.T...
...The C h a r t e r Issue Lefkowitz was unalterably opposed to this solution...
...In an open letter to trade unionists, which was adopted by the N. E. C. without a dissenting vote, appears the following statement: "Uniform penalties should be provided for all members guilty of anti-onion activities whether the members be Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, Independents, or Communists...
...We should not penalize members because of their political, economic, or religions views...
...It may be nearer to the t r u th to write "a majority of the 'Militant Socialists...
...As a precedent such action would be incalculably dangerous...
...Crawford Clothing Company is the largest clothing organization in New York...
...Lefkowitz "have a record of labor progressivism in the past for which the Socialist Party has high respect" How does the Labor Committee stand on the undeniable votetrading between the reactionary job-holders in the convention and Kreuger's left-wing "paper local" forces...
...Here is bared all the tricks of low cunning, craft and chicane of antisocial human beings bent upon a policy of literally destroying all those who do not follow their party "line...
...2. The proposal he reports had no legality, because Local No...
...It is an alliance which more than once in recent months has amused the intelligent and the informed...
...In Biemiller's own city, Milwaukee, last year a party member was expelled because of his activities in a Communist "innocents club...
...It is the labor support which after all, gives the Teachers' Union its strength...
...The situation became so bad that responsible members and officials had come to the conclusion that a surgical operation was necessary to save the union...
...statement of ethics...
...It has protested against ANTI-UNION ACTIVITIES and these have been practiced by the Communists, The Biemiller-Thomas view of the N.E.C...
...Linville and Dr...
...Biemiller ignores this vital charge, and also the fact that at one time the union was saved by two votes from being forced to, line up with the Communist Party and the Manufacturers' Association in opposition to labor's unemployment insurance bill—the Byrne-Killgrew Bill in the New York Legislature...
...ousting union members guilty of obstructive tactics, but that I certainly saw no evidence that would warrant the expulsion of 700 members...
...Public Speaking classes will be started on Sunday, September 15th, at 10:30 A- M. at the Garibaldj Hall, under the auspices of the Socialist Party...
...In the first place a compromise agistment had been reached by the executive coundl on the handling of the situation in Local 5. This agreement was in strict accord with customary trade union practice and had been given the unofficial approval of many prominent labor leaders...
...Nobody wins...
...5 had not been invited...
...Kreufer's nomination for the ptaiiidasry which wis used to clnb Mr, Lswrycandidate, for reelection, hsto l h* He ignores, the "unholy alliasce of militants and reactionaries...
...I am certain that Biemiller did not quote the N.E.C...
...It is Utopian to think so...
...and two members of the A.F.T., should take over control of Local 5 for a period of a few months and endeavor to work oat a solution of the problems of that local...
...Assume that the supporters of the administration leave the union...
...Why Mr...
...If the delegates of Local 5 had not walked oat of the convention on the last day they would know better...
...Biemiller states that any article is full of misstatements, but scrupulously refrains from bsiar specific...
...Florence Cartas Hanson, Maynard Krueger, the writer and other Socialists to ruin the Teachers' Union...
...Linville and Dr...
...3. I charged—and my charge is supported by the oldest and largest locals which left the Cleveland convention on August 30— that last year oar convention was captured by "paper" locals which were illegally represented and that this year similar tactics were pursued, aided by "militants...
...An example of "liberal" demagogy in this respect was offered by the New York Post in an editorial dealing with the unfortunate situation in the Teachers' Union...
...The exhaustive Dewey report of two years ago brought this out...
...Such activities cannot continue without driving members away in disgust, without preventing new members coming in, and without paralyzing the normal functions for which anions are organized and ^maintained...
...Linville Statement of a group of Socialist members of the Teachers' Union: 1 I J E who are members of the • Socialist Party and the Teachers' Union wish to express strong dissent from the statement of the Xational Labor Committee that "The majority of Socialists in Local 5 have been unable to giye support to Dr...
...We do-not believe that making deals with discordant elements or condoning anti-social and anti-union activities in the name of free speech will bridge the gulf that still yawns between the political and economic, movements of the working class...
...That quotation deals with two things, activities and opinions...
...The Post also takes occasion to refer sneeringly to The New Leader which last week published a statement from Dr...
...This hi just a figment of his unruly imagination...
...Socialist Teachers Back Position of Dr...
...a the floor, they made taolj...
...Their new fall line is undoubtedly the finest they have ever made...
...On my motion it was referred to the incoming executive committee...
...Small heiser and other Local No...
...I repeat again the only cry raised against the 700 was that of Communism and I refuse to be party to red-baiting...
...So misleading are some of those statements that I deem it necessary to take up certain of the points he makes...
...And on that score Brother Lefkowitz is on mighty thin ice in his attempt to brand the progressive...
...Several members who favored the Administration's request were never notified...
...Public Speaking Class NEW KENSINGTON...
...Will there be peace and a bigger and better union...
...L. P. Goldberg Recovering After Operation Local Socialists will be pleased to learn that Comrade Eleanore Levenson, the wife of Louis P. Goldberg, is recovering' satisfactorily after a major operation on: Wednesday...
...He is right...
...The charter was to be revoked and 700 members expelled (call it by another name if yon like but the effect is just the same) from the union on the cry of Communism...
...That the Committee on Policies discussed the resolution and approved it by a 12 to 11 *o**> because of the solid support of the militants and a few reactionaries...
...The most recent statement of the National Executive Committee on this question was issued at the Labor Day, 1934, meeting...
...The new fall fabrics include plenty of soft tweeds and other sports fabrics, as well as a generous selection of durable, smart hard worsteds, the kind that wear like iron...
...If so, another denial of a fact should not worry an "infant" » our organization whom so far as I know I had never previously «•* and to whom I did not say I *** to the "left* 'of the Socialist Party...
...Instead, he proceeds to introduce other items wholly irrelevant, or proceeds to draw unwarranted deductions to confuse the situation still further...
...The left wingers, always ready to avail themselves of the assistance of this capitalist organ, appaud...
...For example, what is to be said of creatures who again and again charge that officials have "betrayed the Union...
...Mr...
...We shall oppose any such suicidal coarse in the party and we will have a majority of the members with as...
...The union is already split beyond reconciliation by left-wing groups plus the aid and comfort given them by the "militant" Socialist group...
...Linville and Dr...
...Norman Thomas also mentions it .'•without quoting it and ascribes it to me...
...condemned these tactics in principle in a resolution or statement originally drafted, if memory serves me, by James Oneal...
...This is an old offense in the union...
...2. I charged that these leftwingers sought to ally our local with Communist controlled affiliates and thus endangered our moor affiliation...
...Does MrBiemiller deny that W.itaato" argued f o r the policy it embodied...
...Thomas declares that The New Leader was "unfair to the Socialists within the Teachers' Union who voted against what amounts to expulsion of Communists from the union for being Communists...
...F. of L. and opposed to organized labor...
...Those who know better, and particularly the labor movement of this city, will know how to judge the Post and its support of irresponsible elements working for the destruction of the labor movement...
...Henry Linville and Abraham Lefkowitz for the fight they are waging against a combination of Communist, pseudo-Communist, left wing and reactionary elements who"are destroying the fine teachers' organization...
...It is not our intention to give the editors of the Post elementary lessons in what happens to labor organizations where Communist and left wing elements are at work...
...He is himself a betrayer of the union if he does not follow the accusation by attempting to prove it for his failI ure to so act makes him an accomplice in the "betrayal...
...Memphis and Chattanooga Tennessee, New Bedford, Mass., etc and cause loss of labor affiliation...
...The stable elements will be outside, no longer fired upon by a ~ precarious group alliance which is held together only because of its common opposition to the stable elements...
...I drafted the statement...
...Kreuger'a stetsgasst in the Executive Council tij§* he would never give the new ckort*^ to the present leaders of oar kfeai if the old charter ware revekaej^h* ignores everything, injaita evant things and dares to spoil* the face of the record...
...Communists, parlor bolsheviks and confused liberals reply in kind and seek to paste the Hearst label on any and every criticism of destructive Communist and left whig activity in the labor movement...
...5 speakers showed clearly that the issue was not one of political beliefs or affiliation, but conduct...
...I P f j ** none so blind as those who rOj*** to see or to read...
...statement as a reason why the party should not expel that offender...
...Independents, or Communists...
...We are astounded at the ignorance shown by the Labor Committee...
...They are the majority but they are thinking of doing so...
...The assumption of the Biemiller and Thomas comments is that we are not in accord with the quotation from the N.E.C...
...How Mr...
...If they were content with only expressing their philosophy there would be no harm done, but when they engage in the intrigues, slander and sabotage for which they have become notorious then their activities become of grave concern to all the members...
...Hearst" will not deceive those who unlike the Post a r e interested not in business advantage but in promoting the true interests of labor...
...The Consequence...
...My New Leader article made the following charges: 1. That the left-wing element in the Teachers' Union, led by Communists, and pursuing left-wing tactics, bad been charged with and found guilty of character assassination, deliberate misrepresentation, sabotage and anti-union conduct...
...The operation was performed at the Gotham Hospital, 30 East 76th St...
...Lefkowitz had been repudiated by their organization...
...Again this "champion" ignores the charge and the irregularities he himself supported...
...The cry "Helping Mr...
...Not only did the "militant*" and reactionaries unite on this issue, but also in the voting ia the election of officers as exanknetioo of the ballots by the tellers showed...
...BiemilicrSgastss facts...
...Charles Hendley must take a large share of responsibility for the action taken at Cleveland...
...Hence it is to be profoundly hoped that a satisfactory adjustment can be made of the differences that have developed within the union...
Vol. 18 • September 1935 • No. 37
