The Organizer (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1934-07-17

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UNITED
LABOR
ACTION
DAILY STRIKE BULLETIN
MlNNESO
HISTORICAL
SMASH THE
CITIZENS
ALLIANCE
TWO TWENTY-FIVE
SOUTH THIRD STREET
Volume I, No. 5
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, TUESDAY, JULY 17, 1934
Price one cent
THE STRIKE IS ON!
Members Cheer
Confidence Vote
for Union Heads
The Rank and File Backs
the Leadership
The propaganda of the employers
about the leaders of 574 imposing
themselves on the rank and file against
their will got an awful wallop at Monday night's meeting. The "Red Scare"
turned out to be one of the world's
greatest flops. At Monday's membership meeting the following resolution
of the Executive Board was adopted
by unanimous vote. The next time you
hear some exploiter, disrupter, stool-
pigeon or yellow-belly squawking
against the chosen leaders of 574 show
this resolution to him and ask him
what he has to say about it:
RESOLUTION
The Executive Board of Local 574,
assembled in full session at the Union
Headquarters, Saturday, July 14th,
unanimously adopted the following resolution :
WHEREAS, the employers and their
agents are conducting a vicious campaign against the leadership of the
union, and are falsely asserting that the
said leadership has been imposed on
the union against the will of the membership; and
WHEREAS, this slanderous propaganda is an old trick of the enemies of
labor to drive a wedge between' the
rank and file and the leadership and
to sow demoralization in the ranks on
the eve of the strike; and
WHEREAS, the leadership has demonstrated its efficiency and loyalty in
the building of our union and in the
previous strikes, and thereby has earned
the hatred of the Citizens Alliance, the
employers and their press, and, on the
other hand, has repeatedly received the
enthusiastic endorsement of the rank
and file of the union; and
WHEREAS, the Executive Board
had before it the declaration of the
Organization Committee that, in order
to spike the attempt of our enemies to
shift the issue from the bread and butter questions of the workers to the
issue of personalities, it was ready to
put the whole matter up to the rank
and file, and either remain at their
posts or step aside, as the membership
may decide;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED,
that the Executive Board condemns
the slander campaign as a desperate
attempt to create divisions in our ranks
and to break up the union. It declared
its full confidence in the Organization
Committee, calls upon it to remain at
its post, and appeals to the membership
meeting to confirm this resolution.
Unanimously adopted Saturday, July
14th, by the Executive Board of Local 574.
G. H. Q.
Strike Headquarters
General Headquarters for all
pickets has been set up at
215 South Eighth St.
All pickets report there to the
Committee in charge.
The Strike Issues Are Clear-cut and Simple!
Fight Like One Man Till Victory!
The conspiracy of the employers, spurred on
by the Citizens Alliance, to cheat the membership of 574 out of the fruits of the victory won
in the May strike, has finally compelled the
Union to give the only possible answer—
To call a strike to enforce the demands of the
Union!
Every member of our Union understands the
issues. They are simple and clearcut. They
have been considered and discussed in every detail. Meeting after meeting has been devoted
to them. Endless hours of negotiations, in
which the employers used every device and subterfuge known in the art of trickery in order to
swindle us, produced no satisfactory results at
all. Their tricks did not deceive us——our arguments did not budge them.
Very well, then, no more palaver! Action is
what they'll get!
On Wednesday, July 11, the ranks of our
Union assembled in meeting to adopt a decision
for strike action without a dissenting vote. On
Monday, July 16, the previous strike decision
was just as unanimously reaffirmed by the members of 574. The strike begins with the endorse"
ment and the enthusiastic approval of the entire
membership.
The issues in the present strike are basically
the same as they are for those other workers
throughout the land who have laid down their
tools.
1. The right of the workers to organize and
be represented by a Union. Their freedom to
exist as an independent organization, directed
by themselves and not by the employers. Their
right to lay down their own policies and to
choose their own leaders.
2. The improvement of wages, hours of labor, and working conditions. The arrogant
pressure of the employing class, combined with
the rising cost of living, has made it imperative
for us to fight to better our lot if we are to live
above the level of beasts.
3. The right of the Union to represent all the
workers in its ranks in negotiating and disputes
with the employers, instead of leaving each individual worker, defenseless and alone, to the
mercies of his boss.
The employers have taken a stubborn position which aims at undermining and destroying
the Union and the protection which it affords
the workers in its ranks.
They have systematically sought to split the
union. They have tried their utmost to create
an artificial division between the rank and file
and the leadership. The rank and file gave
them the reply they deserved, in an unmistakable manner.
They sought to break the solidarity that
holds together the truck drivers and the inside
men, to drive a wedge between the two inseparable parts of our Union. The organization as a
whole checkmated this move and ALL the members voted to stand by each other.
Then, when the obvious facts compelled the
employers to admit, at least by inference, that
our Union could represent both truck drivers
and inside men, they resorted to a final and a
most impudent proposal:
At the last minute, the employers proposed
that we open our membership books to inspection in order to "prove" that we really have the
inside men in our Union.
By this insolent proposal, the employers are
showing that they, do not yet realize that they
are dealing with a Union that fights for the interests of its members, and does not betray
them. We show no membership books to bosses
or their agents, so that they may establish a
blacklist against Union men.
The employers know that we are qualified to
represent the inside men just as well as the
truck drivers and helpers.   If they pretend that
they still need proof of this fact, they now have
plenty of opportunity to furnish themselves
with it. They now have the chance of counting
our members. H they haven't realized it yet,
they can find it out today:
IF YOU DON'T THINK WE HAVE IN OUR
RANKS THE MEN WHO HAVE AUTHORIZED US TO SPEAK AND ACT IN THEffi
NAME, COME AND COUNT THEM AS THEY
LEAVE PLACES OF WORK! COME AND
COUNT THEM ON THE PICKET LINE!
That's the closest any employer will ever get
to snooping into our membership rolls! And
no self-respecting Union man will ever let a
boss get an inch closer than that.
Our case has not only been put to the employers. It has been before the entire organized labor movement of Minneapolis. In the
general conference of all the Unions, the demands of 574 were endorsed as just and reasonable, worthy of the wholehearted support of
every workdngman. At the magnificent demonstration on Friday, July 6, the organized working class of Minneapolis roared its endorsement
of the demands of 574 and pledged.itself to uphold them.
We enter the battle with powerful support
from the population, not only in Minneapolis,
but even outside of it.
And how well justified is this support! We
are not fighting an isolated cause. Ours is the
cause of the whole labor movement. Should we
be defeated, we who are intrenched in the key
industry of transportation, the other unions in
Minneapolis would be chopped down one by
one. Every labor organization would be endangered. Should we be victorious, it means a
strengthening of the whole labor movement, it
means a tremendous step forward in making
Minneapolis a solid Union town.
To the members of 574 our fight means the
preservation and consolidation of their Union.
It means protection of their jobs. It means
their bread and butter. It means a decent, civilized existence.
The aggressiveness, the inspiring courage,
the iron determination of the members of 574,
already proved in two great strikes this year,
make us supremely confident of the outcome of
this fight. The stirring example of the men of
labor in San Francisco, only adds to our strength
Our cause is. just.
Our Union is strong and firm..
Our faith in the victory is unshakeable.
Our triumph is assured, no force can defeat
us, if we stand solid, with unbroken ranks,
meeting all enemies with unbowed heads—if
we fight stubbornly like disciplined soldiers in
the army of labor.
All together for militant unionism!
All together for the victory of 574, which is
the victory of the whole labor movement!
LAST  MINUTE  FLASH!
As we go to press, the newspapers report that
Governor Olson, in response to a letter from
Mayor Bainbridge, has announced that troops
have been mobilized, for strike duty. One battalion of the Minnesota National Guard has already been stationed at the Armory, ready for
action.
Apparently the bosses have learned nothing
from the Toledo and San Francisco ^str^kes,.
where the National Guard, cldhid 'tW.t to. prqtpc'f ."
the interests of the employers,-proved'umrbdil- '
ing against the determinylion, . militancy   and' •
solidarity of the strike*?.. Th&$ett;e'jr\$.74~h,.
and for that mailer, every man in the labor
movement of Minneapolis—will not be cowed,
or deterred from his duty, by such a show of
force!
No truck is going to be moved! By nobody!
Bosses Tactics
Force Union to
Launch Walkout
Membership Meeting Gives
Unanimous Vote.
The great mass membership meeting of Local 574 at the East Side Eagles
Hall on Monday, July 16th, assembled
to hear the last word of the employers before taking final action, received
the report of their refusal to grant the
demands of the union. In reply the
membership took the only course left
to union men. By unanmious vote the
membership reaffirmed its previous decision of Wednesday, July 11, and declared the strike effective Monday midnight, July 16.
With the same unanimity the slander campaign of the employers and
their agents was answered by a rising
vote of confidence in the leaders and
a call to them to remain at their posts
and lead the struggle to victory. A
strike committee of 100 was elected at
the meeting to conduct the strike in
cooperation with the officials.
All the schemes of the enemies of labor to sow dissension in the ranks
and discourage the members came to
nothing. All the talk about "opposition" to the strike disappeared in thin
air. The "Red Scare" was shown up as
a red herring. All the propaganda about
a revolt against the leadership was
shown to be a fake.
President Brown asked anyone who
opposed the strike to take the floor.
No one answered. When the question
was put before the body the demand
for the strike asserted itself so overwhelmingly that the rank and file overrode the proposal of the leadership to
take a secret ballot. As one man they
rose to their feet and insisted that last
Wednesday's decision was legal and
binding. The failure of the employers
to take advantage of the five days delay to change their attitude made the
decision final.
THE STRIKE IS ON 1
Let's make it a real strike for a real
victory I
■
Legal Staff for Strike
The Strike Committee of 100 announces that at its first meeting last
night a motion was unanimously adopted designating as attorneys for the
Committee Fred A. Ossanna of Ossan-
na, Hall and Hoaglund, Rand Tower,
and Albert L. Goldman, noted Chicago labor lawyer now in this city.
The legal interests and rights of the
strikers will be carefully guarded by
the Strike Committee's legal staff, as
well as by the membership of 574 as
a whole.
Organized  Labor Moves  Ahead
100,000 workers out in Frisco on
general strike.
,1,200 workers of the Kohler plumbing
obVnpany out on strike at Kohler, Wis.
• 49,000 workers organized into 106
unk}rJs"otf StriKe in the Eastbay region.
:.'.l$(*lQ Xjnitfd Textile Workers out in
Birmingham.
Three strikes on in Cleveland—taxi-
cab, Tug Firemen's and Linesmen's association, Cleveland File Co. employees.
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