LABOR JOTTINGS FROM ABROAD
LABOR JOTTINGS FROM ABROAD Aid Cannon McUi Worker. - Transport vwktyn Cains — lulu* union* on Up CtmU — African Strike Threat — "No Vlor* Block Friday." Help for German Metal Worker* German metal...
...The New Leader Mail Bag In Answer to Craig Editor, The New Leader: Not only is Archibald Craig unfortunate in the statement that Socialism would "destroy Labor unions," as you put it in your comment upon his letter, but it is unfortunate that he should have the viewpoint of a Utopian Socialist...
...Whet may ultimately happen I cannot say, but of tl is I am perfectly Mr-lain, there shall be no more Black Fridays, and personally I shall not be prepared to enter into any binding alliances without the full consent of the members of the rank and file involved...
...His experiments in the treatment of diseases place him in the ranks of the world's distinguished healers...
...The attitude of the great majority of the leaders of the Confederation toward Communist efforts at disruption was shown at a special conference of labor representatives from all over Italy, held in Milan the last days of January to consider ways and means of resisting the anti-union activities of the Fascist...
...The Amalgamated Clothing Workers is carrying on a big campaign to organize the clothing workers of Cincinnati...
...Since I tha Federation was reconstructed no ; organization has withdrawn from it...
...Due to the active part in the successful strike played by the real Labor unions, the scheme did not work as well as had fieen hoped for and the drift toward the Confederation continues, Late reports tell of the lining up with the Confederation of the Italian Labor League, an organization formed in 1016 by a number of the present Fascists leaders in order to wean the farm workers away from their real union...
...Transport Federation Gains Fast During 1024 the International Federation of Transport Workers made the greatest gains of any year since its organization in 1919...
...Speaking at a meeting of miners last week, Secretary A. J. Cook declared "We will now prepare the machinery necessary to establish by our might what we have failed to secure by reason, and we shall ask the workers ofHhis country to join hands with us in the year 1925 to ensure not only for miners a living wage, but protection for the rest of the workers...
...Italian Union* on the Up Grade That the march of the Italian Confederation of Labor back toward normalcy since the national convention in Milan last December is being accelerated faster than even the most optimistic speakers at that gathering dared prophesy is indicated by all reports coming from Italy during the last few weeks...
...When three Communist* who iniiited upon the meeting adopting a resolution damning the Confederation's chiefs and the Socialist parliamentarians for their alleged treason to the workers, they were excluded in a hurry With the disrupters on the outside, the conference proceeded to lay plans for the rapid rebuilding of tbe organization Austrian Bank Clerks Hard Hit Retrenchment in Austria has hit the bank clerk* about the hardest of any class of workers in the republic...
...A Plea for Macfadden Editor, The New Leader: I have read the thrilling article under the caption, "Prince Macfadden of Bunkdom," fresh from the divine pen of Comrade Samuel A. De Witt.- Macfadden is not entirely black, even though we are at variance in our philosophies...
...also from , Finland (transport workers), Brazil I (drivers, coachmen, etr ), and Aus- i Mali* i.-seamen I The five new rail- I way men a organizations are composed of organizations of petty of- j ! ficials (Great Britain, Norway and' I the Dutch Indies...
...nor can you bo until you discard all advertising...
...Make such an agitation everywhere that Parliament House will tremble...
...Goldman, with his band, will bo there, and will speak, along with others prominent in the movement...
...New York City...
...This is a gross exaggeration...
...Other resolutions drew attention to the danger to the workers implied by the proposed European Steel and Iron Trust and urged that representatives of the trade unions should be asked by the various Governments to participate In the negotiation of commercial treaties...
...Our Congress in Johannesburg in April will ask the Government to bring in a minimum wages bill for the whole of South Africa...
...That is not the case...
...No Mor* Black Friday...
...Kick up such a row that the white man cannot sleep...
...Referring to the interest being displayedjtin the confer| ences now going on between the j rail men, engineers and miners, all I of whom have important wage ne-I gotiations pending, Cramp aald: "It seems to be considered that we have met together to consider | putting into operstibn a gigantic strike to enforce our claims...
...And one of the first things that William Green did when he became President of the American Federation of Labor was to meet with heads of International unions and tell them that Labor must make its slogan: "Organize the unorganized...
...Ho fought the American Medical Association bitterly and his position against medical quackery is just as arduous as The New Leader's against political quackery...
...But," some may say, "Labor unions restrict membership...
...The Union of1 Canadian Railway Officials became affiliated in iv'l'i Since January, j 1926, three new requests for affiliation have been received, namely, from the organization of Greek railway .mi ii (which includes practically all railway workers in Greecef, from the Italian organization of transport personnel (secondary railways, inter- 1 municipal tramways, inland navigation, etc...
...They do nothing of the sort, although every Labor hater will agree with him...
...Seceucus, N. J. Central Park 'Conceits Editor, The New Reader: May I call attention to the mass meeting at Carnegie Hall on Friday evening, April 17, called to protest against the proposed elimination of the Goldman band concerts at Central Park, which pettiness and personal bickerings in places of authority bid fair to carry through...
...Speaking before a mass meeting of 2,000 native workers a few weeks ago, Kadalie said: "Tell the white man he has robbed you for the last 200 years, robbed you in the land of your fathers...
...On Jan 1, 1924, the number of clerks in the Austrian banks was 25,591, whereas on Jan...
...To be sure, I agree with Comrade De Witt only in part...
...There will be no more Black Fridays," C. T. Crimp, industrial secretary of th National Union of Railwaymen, declared at a large meeting1 of rail men at Peterborough last week...
...The thing for the unorganized workers to do, then, is to organize...
...It was successful to a certain degree, but now the rank and file has forced a return to the old body...
...After all, we workers have no assurance that when the Cooperative Commonwealth is ushered in we will secure justice if we give up our Labor organizations...
...New York...
...The union is composed of native workers...
...It is not the first time that I have seen a statement like Craig's that Labor unions profit at the expense of the poor...
...Let me defend Macfadden as not a destroyer of humanity, though criticizing him for entering the political field...
...Unemployment among them is widespread and the chance of their get-uig other work is not bright...
...Get together everywhere and breathe the one word: I want to be a free man in/South Africa...
...And I am not at all sure that I can agree with you that the realization of Socialist aims would make Labor unions unnecessary...
...The Tenants' and Peasants' League of Lombardy, an organization with some fifty sections, has also recently joined the confederation...
...I In only losses have been those of the Italian Seamen's Union and of the Netherlands Federation of Trans port Workers, which were excluded from the Federation...
...We mean it...
...BLANCHE WATSON...
...My message to you in 1925 is: You must be free men and free women in the land of your fathers...
...The British Labor party would not be the power it is if it were not for the fact that the English workers are well organized in their trade unions, and the Socialist Party as well as the cause of independent Labor political action will continue to be weak so long as the percentage of unorganized workers in America is large...
...He was one of America's great champions of health as well as America's great enemy of the drug humbug as a cure for physical ills...
...But that is a matter for the future...
...Help for German Metal Worker* German metal worker*, especially those in the foundries and steel works, were assured of the active support of their brothers in other countries in their fight for the eight-hour working day and a general improvement of wages and working conditions at a conference of 128 delegates from metal workers' unions in fourteen lands held in Cologne March 1 and 2. After reports on conditions in the different countries showing thst only in Germany and Polish Upper Silesia are the bosses strong enough to prevent the establishment of the three-shift system in the mills and that the German steel worker's average wage of fifty marks (about $12) for a 60 to 72 - hour week, against about $30 for a 48-hour week in England, constituted a menace to the working conditions of other steel workers all over the continent and in Great Britain, as well as a fearful burden upon the German working class, a resolution was adopted pledging the aid of the Metal Workers' International to the German and all other workers in their fight for the eight-hour day...
...It has been deemed a wise policy that each section shoulc' be informed of the progress of tt e other, so that, if possible, a common policy shall be followed hy all concerned...
...Let that be your vision for the year...
...and from a Spanish stew- 1 Mnis' organization at Vigo...
...African Strike Threat A minimum wage bill or a strike that will tie up all the railroads of South Africa is the challenge laid down by the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union of South Africa through its secretary, Clements Kadalie...
...It was also resolved to demand union representation on economic associations of national importance and on committeees engaged in drafting Labor legislation...
...What happens is this: when the cost of living rises through the machinations of the capitalists, organized workers arc able to obtain increases in wages, while the "poor" unorganized workers have to put up with lower wages, because as individuals they haven't the power to force increases in their pay...
...After all, only 20 per cent .of the workers arc organized, and I can think of nothing better of a practical nature that the Socialist Party could do at this time than to cooperate with Labor union* in organizing the unorganized...
...The whole spirit of the Cologne meeting, which was opened by C. llg of Bern, Secretary of the Metal Workers' International, was one of inspiring solidarity and a determination to see to it that the Dawes Reparation Plan must not lower tbe standard of living of the German worker*, or their fellows in other lands...
...The re-establishment of the eight-hour day in the German coke ovens and smelters on April I ordered by the German Government was characterized as merely a small start in the right direction...
...For instance, the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union, which is more or less a supporter of the Socialist Party, makes tremendous efforts to organize the unorganized workers...
...If we can't get that we will tell the Government we will hold up the railway service and the entire industry...
...Meanwhile, a coal strike aeems inevitable...
...While the charge may be true in some highly organized trades, in most instances it is not true...
...He contributed untold benefit to the advancement of health and propagation of natural methods of treating sickness...
...WILLIAM HAYES...
...Among these new affiliations, organizations from the British and Dutch Indies are to be fount (or the first time (both of these consist of seamen...
...Few, if any, of our publications are perfect, not excepting The New Leader...
...Macfadden, while not a genius in therapy, is a pioneer of rational living...
...At a recent meeting of the Executive Committee, Secretary Edo Fimmen was able to report that last year fourteen new organizations became affiliated with the Federation, including five organizations of railwaymen with about 80,000 members, five of transport workers with about 20,000 members, and four of seamen with about 60,000 members...
...LABOR-SOCIALIST...
...The writer, due to his acquaintance with Macfadden's career, feels that the sins attributed to him are of a nature too serious to pass unnoticed...
...Nor am I sure th it Macfadden is an enemy of Labor's interest, although he speaks plain enough not to be misunderstood...
...1, last, it waa only 16,649...
...The white man tells you the native must develop 'along his own lines,' What is that...
...After the admission of these organizations Hie total number of affiliated organi-/ations will be seventy-three...
...Even bourgeois correspondents admitted that the main reason for the calling of the big metal workers' strike by Edmondo Rossini, the ex-Anarchist who heads the Faacista union*, was to show the workers that the Mussolini organization could do aomething for them and thus prevent wholesale desertions to the ranks of the revived Confederation...
...The engineers, miners and railwaymen all have programmes presented by them to 1 their respective employes...
...I want you to live according to European standards...
Vol. 2 • April 1925 • No. 16
