The Organizer (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1934-08-13

              o-»lt MOBILIZATION S
i,v4,V--1
DAILY STRIKE BULLETIN
-....•
UNITED
LABOR
ACTION
^ o^"'***
SMASH THE
CITIZENS
ALLIANCE
TWO TWENTY-FIVE
SOUTH THIRD STREET
VOLUME 1, NO. 29
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1934
PRICE ONE CENT
Conspire to Break Strike!
Strikers Eat
Swell Meal
Pine County Farmers
Donate Chickens
Chicken  dinner was served to
three thousand by the commissary
department at strike headquarters
yesterday, the twenty-eighth day
of the greatest strike Minneapolis
ever saw.   The fraternal alliance
of the farmers and the workers
in a struggle against a common
enemy  was  vividly demonstrated
as the embattled workers lined up
at the commissary for the sumptuous banquet prepared for them
today through the generosity of
the farmers supporting the strike.
The   luscious   young   chickens,
which constituted the piece de resistance of the banquet, were donated  by Pine  County   farmers,
members    of   the   Pine    County
Farm    Holiday    Association,    at
whose picnic President Brown was
the invited guest speaker Sunday.
It was a-meal fit for a king—
or   a   union   man.    Besides  the
chicken   the   menu   consisted    of
mashed  potatoes,   chicken   gravy,
radishes, celery, bread, butter and
milk, coffee or buttermilk.   Even
the truck drivers, helpers and inside    men—all   fat   and   overfed
from  the  high  living they have
enjoyed   on  the  big  wages   the
bosses paid before the strike—had
to admit that this feed was just
a little better than even they are
used to.
A few pickets, recently released from the military stockade,
never said a word but just quietly
concentrated on the job of stowing away the chow, like men
whose dream had come true.
It was one of the "high" days
of the strike. A festive spirit prevailed around strike headquarters.
Everybody was happy, well-fed
and confident of victory. Even
the union mascot, the little white
pig with the number "574" painted in red on his sides, scampered
around more frisky than ever in
honor of the day.
The strikers of Local 574
warmly appreciate the generosity
of the farmers and their fine
solidarity in this struggle. Thanks,
Brothers! The bosses give us boloney when we are working; you
give us chicken when we are out
on strike!
Bosses Claim
Haas Support
Military Soaks Pickets
in General Anti-
Union Drive
574 CALLS FOR AID
To Present Relief Demands
Members of the MCCW will attend a meeting of the city Board
of Public Welfare tomorrow
morning to present complaints
against the manner in which the
IHvision of Public Relief has been
carrying out its tasks. Many eligible relief applicants have been
denied relief for improper reason*.
Tomorrow's meeting has been
called by the Board as a result of
the demand made by the MCCW
with the support of several trade
unions. Demands will be made
for a number of changes in the
Public Relief policy. All members
of the MCCW are asked to attend
the session at 11 a. m. in the
Court House.
The Same Old Run-Around!
-    Lawson to Go on Air
Tonight George Lawson,
state head of the American
Federation of Labor, will speak
over station WCCO from 7:30-
7:45 on the strike situation in
Minneapolis.
The Citizens Alliance, even before the
opening of the drivers' strike, had their
puppet Bainbridge ask the Governor for
troops. The open-shop bosses wanted the
troops to be turned into a sort of deputy-
gang of killers under command of Bloody
Mike Johannes. But the pro-strike attitude of the overwhelming majority of the
population would not tolerate any such use
of the state troops. The bosses were disappointed and that is why they clamored
for a Federal injunction against martial
law.
This clamor of the bosses has confused
some elements sympathetic to the strike.
They are inclined to think that martial law
is a blessing to the strikers. Fortunately
the strikers themselves are not fooled for
a moment, but it is essential that the broad
circles of workers and sympathizers be
clarified on this matter.
The problem of strikers is to picket and
induce scabs not to take the bread out of
the mouths of the striking workers. This
problem Local 574 solved very well from
the beginning of the strike. The industry
was tied up tight as a drum. No help was
needed from troops or anybody else.
You might say it is six of one and half
a dozen of the other whether strikers or
troops do the picketing. This is not so. A
union lives and grows only by its own independent activity for which there is no substitute. More than that, THE TROOPS
ARE NOT PREVENTING TRUCK MOVEMENTS.
The permit system in use now is almost
as full of loopholes as the previous permit
system. All sorts of chiseling goes on.
There is the "legal" variety, whereby firms
which refuse to sign the Haas-Dunnigan
agreement move stuff under permits of
those which have signed. There is the "il
legal" variety which means moving bootleg stuff, with or without permits.
At the same time that scab trucks move
with impunity, violating the "orders" of
the Governor and his soldiers, a military
concentration camp pens up over a hundred of our finest pickets.
Once a "chiseler," as the Governor calls
scabs, was fined $3.00. Today Brother
Jimmy Costello, one of our outstanding
pickets, was fined $25 or twenty-five days,
of which he still has 13 days to serve; the
charge is that in an automobile he had
parked outside a restaurant the troops
found a piece of rubber hose. Saturday
three other pickets were sentenced to serve
time—because the court decided that, although they had done nothing wrong, they
might have begun to do it later on!
This afternoon Mrs. Farrell Dobbs, sent
to the military court by The Organizer to
report trials of pickets, was ejected by the
presiding military officer, who will not allow the representative of the workers'
newspaper to observe his dispensation of
martial justice!
Furthermore, peaceful picketing is still
prohibited, we cannot hold our accustomed
mass meetings in front of Headquarters or
even on the back-lot.
Thus in many ways the troops are still
hampering the strike.
Let there be no confusion: the troops are
not shooting down workers the way the
bosses want, but they are also not helping
the strike.
We call upon the Governor, and we are
joined in this by hundreds of thousands of
workers and farmers throughout the state,
to withdraw his troops at once and leave
the job to those who have, can and will
take care of it—the sterling pickets of Local 574.
A general conspiracy to break
the strike and to tighten the
strangulating grip of the1 Citizens
Alliance on the workers of Minneapolis was brought out in the
open  today.
In reply, the Strike Committee
of 100 has issued a call for mobilization of all workers in strike
headquarters, 215 S. 8th St., at
8 o'clock tomorrow night. There
a renewed general drive against
all strike-breaking forces will be
launched.
The wide scope of the conspiracy to smash Minneapolis unionism
is revealed by the following incidents:
1. Reports in the boss press
that Haas and Dunnigan have
abandoned the plan they devised
and have gone over to a plan
drawn by the bosses. Father Haas
has refused to make public denial
of the reported desertion of his
own "fair" plan.
2. A howling crusade in the
kept press that the union alone
is blocking the immediate settlement.
3. The plastering of pickets
with heavy sentences by the military court.
4. The refusal of a permit for
a strike mass meeting at the Parade   tomorrow.
5. The announcement of a
loosening in the permit system beginning   tomorrow.
6. Hints that Messrs. Haas and
Dunnigan will try to sell the bosses' plan to the union members
over the heads of the strike leaders.
The aim of the conspiracy is
to force on the union a "discrimination" clause and to subject
wage demands to a complex stalling process, virtually guaranteeing continuation of existing miserable  wage  levels.
To support the bosses' proposal, Father Haas and Mr. Dun-
nigal must turn their backs upon
their own plan, which they called
"just and fair." They must break
faith with the union, which accepted it as a compromise, and
endorse a plan patented by the
open shop Citizens Alliance.
The strikers' ranks seethed with
indignation as the tales of the
conspiracy became known. Crowds
of sympathizers appeared at headquarters. The fighting spirit characteristic of 574 began to surge
up  with  new  vigor.
President William S. Brown announced that "The leaders of 574
will not back down." He branded
the bosses' "new" proposal as a
treacherous restatement of their
old one, and said that the attempt to intimidate the union by
new threats or to trick it by new
maneuvers will not succeed.
Brother Brown called on all
workers to assemble at strike
headquarters Tuesday night.
Union speakers will expose the
conspiracy and explain the union's
plans for battle.