Marxists’ Internet Archive: ETOL Home Page: Trotskyist Writers Section: Farrel Dobbs
Source: Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 33, 17 August 1940, p. 4.
Transcription & Mark-up: Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The CIO has launched a campaign in the ten mills and shipyards of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. The plan of action was laid down at a conference of the CIO lodges involved, which was held in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on August 11. The Steel Workers Organizing Committee and the Industrial Union of Marine and Ship Building Workers of America, both CIO affiliates, will participate jointly in the drive.
The Bethlehem mills are operating at top capacity with 200 million dollars in government contracts already received.
This corporation is one of those which consistently violate the Wagner Labor Act and the Walsh-Healey Act. It refuses to pay the $5.00 a day minimum on work on government contracts.
CIO Vice-President Phillip Murray announced before the conference that it would “lay the ground work to carry the fight to Washington.” The conference itself announced, however, that failure by the company to bargain collectively will “compel the workers to enforce their rights by economic action.”
This campaign, long overdue, can serve as the opening gun in a fight to correct conditions in the entire steel industry. The urgent necessity for the union to rise vigorously to the defense of its membership can no longer be denied.
The SWOC is under heavy attack from both the steel bosses and the government. The corporations are creating widespread unemployment and forcing down the earnings of the employed steel workers through technological change. They are violating the union contracts, stalling on the settlement of grievances, and practicing general discrimination against the SWOC membership.
The bosses are undermining the union in every way possible.
The government, on its part, is fronting for the steel corporations “in the interests of national defense.” Agents of the FBI are sent into the plants in an effort to intimidate the workers and try to put down any militancy among them. An undercover drive is being conducted against the alien workers. The finger of suspicion is pointed at militant workers who raise their voice in protest against the policy of the corporations.
The efforts of the AFL to organize the steel workers in opposition to the SWOC are more of an annoyance than a threat to the CIO union. AFL propaganda is in large part based on the claim that it is “more patriotic” than the CIO. The AFL has nothing real to offer the steel workers. Its actions only serve to further disorient them.
The national leadership of the SWOC meantime shows an increasing tendency to subordinate the interests of the steel workers to the “interests of the national defense.” Van A. Bittner, SWOC director, Western Region, has been appointed by Hillman to serve in one of the “national defense committees.” The top officials are very jittery about the danger of being called “unpatriotic.” They have gone so far as to warn the field organizers that if they are accused of “un-American activities” they cannot expect the SWOC to defend them, “even though they may be wrongly accused.”
Grievances arising from contract violation and general discrimination against the union membership on the job are permitted to pile up. The complaints are tardily placed before arbitration committees or the NLRB and generally are not militantly pressed, even through these channels. There are very few sallies directly against the bosses. These occur only where pressure from the workers is most heavy.
Some cases of strike action by the steel workers are promptly labelled “outlaw” and a settlement is forced at the first opportunity. The national leadership sometimes follows up the settlement with an attack on the local lodge officials. The usual reason given is per capita tax delinquencies, a violation of the union laws, or some similar charge. Militant lodge leaders are being forced into the background. The most conservative, least class conscious elements are coming forward.
Although the fight for a six hour day at eight hour’s pay was sidestepped at the Chicago convention, some sections of the officialdom are now using this slogan. They are motivated largely by the need for some means to halt the decline in dues payment which is becoming a serious problem. There is little indication that they mean business.
The steel workers have a much different attitude. They accept the fact that they are being pushed into the war but they are not enthusiastic about the idea. There is general indifference among them towards the boss-made, artificial war hysteria. They do not as yet understand the real significance of the war preparations and consequently have not gone over to active opposition to the program of the government. The “Fifth Column” agitation is not taken seriously but it harasses and disturbs them to a certain extent. The steel workers are most concerned about the vital question of jobs and wages. Many thousands of them are already unemployed. Those who have jobs face the threat of reduced earnings and wonder who will be thrown out into the streets next.
They want to fight but the defeat in Little Steel and the timidity of their top leaders since then has undermined their confidence in themselves and their union. The rank and file is anxious to overcome the present apathy and inertia. They need and want a fighting leadership.
Every factor in the situation demands that the SWOC leaders abandon their attitude of subservience to the “interests of the national defense” and that they fight for the interests of the steel workers instead. The battle must be carried direct to the steel bosses through militant trade union action. A vigorous organization drive must be launched, on a program of action:
|
F. Dobbs Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
Last updated: 22 May 2020