The Organizer (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1934-08-16

              TONIGHT!
Presentation of $1,000 by Cooks and Waiters
International Union! -- Hear Guest Speakers,
Strike Headquarters, 215 S. 8th St., 8 P. M.
DAILY STRIKE  BULLETIN
UNITED
LABOR
ACTION
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SMASH THE
CITIZENS
ALLIANCE
TWO TWENTY-FIVE
SOUTH THIRD STREET
VOLUME 1
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, THURSDAY, AUG. 16, 1934
NUMBER 32
Cooks and Waiters Give $1,000
Olson Moves
Hurt Strike
Delegation's Demands
Not Met by Governor
The actions taken by Gov. Olson as a result of complaints
against chiseling laid before him
yesterday by a delegation from
the Strike Committee of 100 are in
no way satisfactory, according to
Grant Dunne, who led the delegation. Dunne made the following
statement:
"The Governor issue an order
against private cars transporting
for commercial purposes. The way
this is put into effect for a few
hours at a time does not stop the
evils. As for regulations on meat
and grocery deliveries by trucks
not covered by the Haas-Dunnigan agreement, these are equally
bad.
"It comes down to this: the
holdout firms get a chance to do
all their transporting in two days
instead of in six. The damage to
the strikers is done and the firms
pay their men for two days instead of for six. They suffer no
inconvenience through the permit
system. Only the strikers are
harmed. The Governor has broken his public promise to keep the
market closed. There is no substitute for pickets."
Other complaints against the
permit system and the military regime in general are flowing in
constantly.
Yesterday a number of men
were released from the stockade
and given back their cars, which
the militia had previously confiscated. This morning the militia
rounded these men up and took
the cars back again, although they
admitted there was no complaint
against the owners  or drivers.
One of these cars was that owned by P. L. Deckers, who was released from the stockade yesterday. This morning he was driving
back to the stockade to bring defense witnesses in the case of
"Speed" Wachter. Although he
told the guards who stopped him
what his mission was, they refused
to let him proceed. They impounded his car and prevented the witnesses from getting to the stockade. Apparently the attitude is
that since all the trials are farces
anyway, there is no use in the defense bothering with witnesses.
A number of peaceful pickets
were interfered with this morning,
and at the same time guards ignored permit violators who moved
trucks with impunity.
The military judge still refuses
to let The Organizer be represented at the military trials because
he does not want the truth reported.
Stop "Organizer" Sellers
Art Rnndy, a Northern Pacific
dick, yesterday chased two Organizer sellers out of the N. P.
yards and took away their papers
and collection cans. A complaint
was entered by the Strike Committee and Switchmen's Local 30.
Our railroad brothers stated
that they want to be able to get
the Organizer and that our sellers
must not be annoyed. Today new
sellers will be sent out. The N. P.
bosses and straw-bosses will have
to learn that they cannot annoy
us with impunity. Steps will be
taken to get back the cans from
Rundy and to check the contents.
A NewStrike-Breaking Scheme
COME TO
HEADQUARTERS  TONITE!
Those members of our union—and there
are quite a few of them—who have kept
track of developments in the labor movement throughout the country since the
NRA was established have taken note of
the raw deals handed out to the workers
in most every case, and have tried to learn
something from the bad experiences of our
fellow workers in other industrial disputes.
That is the main reason our union was not
caught off guard when the federal mediators suddenly turned on us the other day
and attempted to use their authority and
prestige as Government representatives to
ram the bosses' settlement scheme down
our throats.
The prestige of the NRA is not what it
was a year ago. Workers who first hailed
the NRA as the new deal on wheels soon
learned, by bitter experience, to call it the
"National Run-Around." This is the name
the disappointed steel workers gave it. The
United Textile Workers of America attacked the various boards of the NRA as
"agencies and associations of employers" •
at their annual convention in New York
yesterday.
This is the way disillusioned workers all
over the country are talking.
With this experience_.of other trade
unionists in mind, we never saw any good
reason to regard the federal mediators
sent to Minneapolis, nor the agencies they
represented, as saviors or friends of labor.
Just the contrary. Although our negotiating committee accorded Father Haas and
Mr. Dunnigan every courtesy, and gave attentive consideration' to everything they
had to say and every proposal they had to
make, the attitude of Local 574 in the situation has been one of watchful waiting,
not unmixed with caution and even a certain distrust.
That this attitude was amply justified
was demonstrated Monday night when the
Federal mediators, reversing the position
they had previously taken, attempted to
sell the rotten settlement scheme of the
Citizens Alliance to our Strike Committee
of 100 over the heads of our Negotiating
Committee.
Now, from all appearances, the Federal
mediators are sponsoring another strikebreaking maneuver of the bosses to settle
the fate of union men on strike by holding
an "election" and taking a vote of the
scabs.
We know nothing about this new move,
except that it was worked out by the bosses and that the Federal mediators have
recommended it. Local 574 has not been
consulted and, naturally, has nothing whatever to do with it.
We can say this, however. Our union is
fighting for definite demands, fighting by
the time-honored method of organization
and strike. What the mediators and the
NRA boards and the bosses do behind our
backs is strictly an affair between themselves. They can parade the scabs and imported thugs through an "election" every
morning, and again every afternoon, for
all we care. It is no concern of ours.
But if they try to bind us by such a transparent fraud, if they try to break our strike
by such a crooked maneuver—then we will
have something to say, and we will say
plenty.
And you can be sure that other trade
unionists will join in the chorus until it be
comes a roar of protest that will be heard
around the country, and in Washington,
too. If the attempt of the Federal mediators to go over the head of the union leadership raised the members of Local 574 to
their feet in alarm at such a disruptive
move on the part of representatives of
Government agencies, the new proposition
to hold an election of scabs during a strike
cannot fail to stir up a hornets' nest in the
entire labor movement.
Such an outrageous procedure hits at the
very foundations of independent trade
unionism and the right to strike.
It is only one step removed from the attempt to take away the right to strike altogether, and to confine and limit the activities of workers, seeking redress for intolerable grievances and iniquities, to the
endless maze of discussion in which nothing ever happens except that the worker
gets it in the neck—the "National Run-
Around" as the cheated and embittered
steel workers called it.
Thejjrigbjfe of the workers to organize for
mutiM protection is the very foundation
of their right to an independent existence
free from the control of the employers.
The workers have conquered that right for
themselves in over a century of struggle.
They will accept no shoddy substitute, not
even if it bears the trade mark of the NRA
or any other Governmental agency.
The right of the workers to strike for
the redress of grievances is the only thing
that gives real meaning to the right to organize. Union men will not subject this inviolable right to the approval of anybody
—neither to the organized employers, nor
to the NRA boards, and certainly not to the
approval of scabs and professional strikebreakers.
As we said before, we know nothing
about the details of the latest scheme
hatched by the bosses and supported by
the Federal mediators. But it has all the
earmarka,^ a sinister anti-union maneuver
which would set a precedent for the virtual outlawing of the right to organize and
strike.   ,.
TRADE UNIONISTS, BE ON GUARD!
Ceremony at
8th St* Tonite
Convention Delegates
to Address Strikers
Announcement was made last
night that the annual Convention
of the Bartenders, Cooks and
Waiters International, now in session at Eagle's hall in this city,
has donated $1,000 to the strike
fund of Drivers Local 574. The
news that this International was
thus giving not only its endorsement to the the demands of the
strikers and the policy of the
Strike Committee, but practical
support of an essential kind,
stirred great enthusiasm among
the strikers.
Tonight a formal presentation
of a check for $1,000 will be made
at a mass meeting in Strike Headquarters, 215 South 8th St., to begin at 8 o'clock. There will be
speeches by leading officials of the
cooks and waiters union, as well
as speeches of greeting by President Bill Brown of 574 and other
union and strike officials.
THANKS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS
The generous donation of $1,000 made
to the strike fund of Local 574 by the convention of the Hotel and Restaurant Employes and Beverage Dispensers Alliance
is the biggest news event of the day for the
members of our organization. With blows
falling on our heads and traps being set
for our feet, it is encouraging indeed to see
a. group of fellow workers of our own class
;ome forward with a helping hand—and a
thousand dollars in the hand.
The greatest weapon of the bosses,
and the one they rely on with cold calculation, is the weapon of hunger. Such donations as that made by the cooks and waiters and bartenders shield us against the
bosses' scheme to starve us out. As long
as we can eat, we can fight.
But even more than the material aid, we
appreciate the beautiful spirit of class solidarity which inspired the donation. It is
practical testimony of the sympathy which
other workers in other trades and other
cities feel for our great fight. With their
help we will fight on and win.
Last night's open house at
Strike Headquarters was featured
by the participation of a number
of guest speakers, all of them
delegates at the cooks and waiters
convention. They brought greetings to the heroic striking drivers
from every part of the United
States and congratulated Local
574 on its historic battle for trade
unionism. "Your fight is ours; we
stand with you to the end;" this
was the greeting brought by delegate after delegate. Among the
speakers, in' addition to President
Bill Brown of Local 574, were:
M. J. Iverson of Gary, Ind.,
business agent of a bartenders'
local and member-at-large of
Drivers Local 142; George W.
Holbert of Local 444, Chicago;
William Lehman, Local 1, New
York City and Third International Vice-President of the Union;
Louis Rif kin arid Eddie Hagen of
Local 2, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Sam
Spitzer of Local 1, New York
City; Harry Paulussen of Local
508, Atlantic City, N. J.; and J.
Levirt Kelly, President of Local
444, Chicago, 111.
Brother Kelly, hailing from the
famous Chicago South Side Negro
section, moved the audience to en-
thuiastic applause as he told how
he was shot down on the street by
boss thugs and how his life was
saved by a white worker who belonged to the Chicago Drivers
Union. Pointing out his intimate
bonds of solidarity with the drivers as a result of this, he joined
the other guest speakers in promising to get further aid for the
Minneapolis strikers on his return
home after the convention.
- Business Agent Leslie Sinton of
the Minneapolis local of bartenders, cooks and waiters, also spoke,
telling the audience of the fraternal feelings for the strikers manifested at the convention to which
he is a delegate.
Dance Tomorrow Night
A Hard-Time Dance will be
held tomorrow night at Union
Headquarters, 225 S. Third St.
All strikers, workers and
friends invited. Admission will
be 25 cents and up, payable in
food, tobacco, cigarettes or
other merchandise useful to the
Strike Committee for distribution   to   strikers.