The Organizer (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1934-08-21

              LATE FLASH!
All Prisoners of Olson's Militia
Hit Conditions by Hunger Strike
All 55 pickets held in the Workhouse by
the militia are on hunger strike against intolerable slop being served to them as food. *
When slops were put before them for supper, the prisoners refused to a man to eat.
They were then returned to cells, each isolated
from the other, and! kept all night in a jungle
of bedbugs. This morning they were again of
fered food unfit for human consume
When I was released
about noon, the prisoner
eat nothing until food
are improved. They urg«
to raise a protest on their
a speedy end to their intolerable situation.
—Happy Holstein
DAILY STRIKE BULLETIN
UNITED
LABOR
ACTION
SMASH THE
CITIZENS
ALLIANCE
SOUTH THIRD STREET
VOLUME 1
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA TUESDAY, AUG. 21, 1934
NUMBER 36
Union Busters Busted!
Looie Shows
Hate of 574
Guards Impede, Insult
Union Men
Governor Olson's National
Guard gave another touching testimonial of their friendship to the
strikers last night and furnished
another reason why the workers
should take off their hats and
cheer for the Governor and Commander in Chief of the state
troops. This happened when a
truckful of lieutenants and noncommissioned officers stopped a
union car and presented their
compliments to Grant Dunne and
other members of the Strike Committee of 100.
Dunne and four other members
of Local 574 left the meeting at
614 First Avenue North after the
treacherous conspiracy to split
the union in the midst of the
strike had been smashed. Passing
through a cordon of guards, detectives and finks who had been
ejected from the meeting, the
union men got into a 574 car and
started for Strike Headquarters.
At Ninth and Hennepin a National Guard truck pushed the
union car to the curb.
"Get out, you sons of bitches,
and keep your hands in the air,"
said the lieutenant in charge, as
four of them, armed with rifles
and fixed bayonets, climbed out
of the military truck and surrounded the union men.
The non-cqmmissioned officers
remaining in the truck fixed a machine gun in position to perforate
the union men at a moment's notice.
"What is this all about?" asked
Grant Dunne.
"None of your God damned
business," answered one of the
lieutenants. "Just keep your
hands up. What have you got in
that car?"
"See for yourself," answered
Grant.
They searched the car like a
squad of dicks going through a
workingman's home in search of
a pint of moonshine. They pulled
out the seats, opened the trunk
at the rear of the car, raised the
hood, and frisked all over the innocent tin Lizzie that hadn't received so much attention since the
day it was rolled off the assembling line in 1923. They didn't
find anything except a bundle of
Organizers and a can of snoo.se.
"Whose snoose is dis?" asked
the lieutenant belligerently.
"Not mine," said Grant, "Charge
me with any crime you wish—robbery, murder, mahem, unionism,
communism or rheumatism, but
don't accuse me of chewing
snoose."
Another search of the car from
stem to stern revealed nothing.
Meanwhile the union men were
kept standing with their arms extended in the air. Some boys at
the cab stand across the street
were emitting queer noises which
sounded like Bronx eneers. Somebody shouted: "Get that crate off
the street" "Another voice was
heard from the general direction
of the cab stand: "Does your
mama know you're out?"
"Who said dat?" asked the lieutenant, as he marched to the cab
stand.
"Not me, chief," said a cab
driver. "I'm deaf, dumb and
blind."
All this time the 574 men were
'What do you say, Brother?    Are you going to help me?"
How About the Leaders?
The union-smashing, open-shop campaign of the Citizens Alliance is concentrated for the present on Local 574, the
most militant and aggressive union in town.
"If we can smash this union," they say,
"it will be a simple matter to clean up on
the others, one by one."
They are out to smash Local 574.
All the bosses and all the tools of the
bosses have been lined up for this fight.
The whole power of the employing class
today is directed against a single local
union.
What can the workers do? How can
they fight back in such an effective manner as to win the day for unionism?
The way to do this
now has been indicated by Local 574 in
the proposal laid before the Central Labor Union and the
State Convention of
the Minnesota Federation of Labor, asking the endorsement
of these bodies for a
48-hour general demonstration strike.
Many people raise
their hands in holy
horror at the mention
of a general strike.
As for the bosses and
their political tools, they have reason to
get the shivers. The kind of a strike we
have in mind will smash their company
union-fake election schemes like a house
of cards.
But why should any worker or labor
leader be afraid?
The failure of the San Francisco general
strike is brought up by every exploiter as
a warning that labor cannot succeed when
it strikes unitedly. Some labor "leaders"
with the psychology of slaves chime in and
say:  "Don't clench your fists; get down
ALL OUT TO THE
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Eagles Hall, 4th Ave. and 8th St.
Tonight at 8 o'clock
Local 574 calls on every member to
attend this meeting where information
of the highest importance to the union
and to every member of the union will
be given out. Action will be taken on
problems of great significance to you.
Come early. This duty is as important as
duty on the picket line.  All out!
on your knees—this is the way to get favors from the bosses."
We answer: We are not asking for favors. We are fighting for our rights, and
we want no advice from cowards.
San Francisco? The trouble with the
San Francisco general strike was that it
was not a real strike.. It had no definite
aims. It had no leadership. It was not the
idea of the general strike that was discredited there, but unworthy, incompetent and
treacherous leadership.
We propose something different.
First, we point out the facts. The whole
force of the employing class, and all their
political tools, is   directed   against Local
574.    Our   union  is
fighting    back.   We
are  trying to  teach
the workers of Minneapolis, by example,
that the policy of determined struggle is
the best policy.
But the bosses and
their political tools
are ganging up on us.
We need help.
And where shall
we get it except from
our own fellow unionists?
A 48-hour general
strike of all the trade
unions of Minneapolis will be a warning
to the labor-hating bosses that Minneapolis labor is getting mad.
Such a powerful demonstration will turn
the tide.
What is needed for it?
Only one thing!
Courage!
The rank and file of all the unions have
got plenty of it.
They are just as game as the members
of fighting 674.
How about the leaders?
standing with their arms in the
air, menaced by bayonets. When
the second search of the car was
finished, Grant Dunne asked the
lieutenant who seemed to be directing things:
"What is your authority   for
this interference with a union
car? Whose orders are you carrying out?"
"None of your God damned
business," said the exponent of
Governor Olson's martial law.
"Now you lousy bastards get back
in the car and be quick about it."
The union men got back in the
car.
"Get going," said Young Mussolini.
The union car drove back to
Strike Headquarters.
Oil Men Nip
Plot in Bud
Paul    Smith's    Dirty
Scheme Falls Flat
A conspiracy to split the members of Local 574 into several
unions, similar to he bosses' plan
to split us into 166 powerless
company unions, was smashed last
night by action of the oil workers
of 574.
The conspiracy was started by
Paul Smith, agent of the A. F. of
L. big shots in Washington, aided
by a tool inside 574. Arriving
some days ago in the midst of the
strike, he offered no aid or encouragement to the strikers. Instead, he began a sinister attempt
to split the oil workers out of the
union while it is fighting the bosses with its back against the wall.
In his K effort to take the oil
workers out of Local 574, Smith
got the aid of George Lund, a 574
member who only a week ago asked and got the Strike Committee's endorsement as steward of
the oil workers.
Last night several hundred oil
workers came to a meeting called
at Central Labor Union headquarters by Smith and Co. Some of
them were fooled into coming,
some were terrorized, others came
to find what it was all about.
Smith and Co. feared that they
would have trouble because the
oil workers want to stay with the
truck drivers as that is their natural place and gives them their
best protection. The oil workers
have also been satisfied with negotiations conducted with the
bosses under 574's direction.
Fearing they could not fool the
workers, Smith and Co. brought
to this union meeting twelve detectives, one rat who was a special
dep in the May strike, and some
thugs believed to be of the Bergoff gang imported from New York
as strike-breakers by the Citizens
Alliance.
Despite the gunmen, Smith and
Co. feared to start the meeting
when they discovered the presence of a delegation from the
Strike Committee. Smith turned
tail and disappeared. When the
workers yelled for the meeting to
begin, Lund denied he had called
it and refused to take the chair.
Grant Dunne arose and asked
who had called the meeting and
who wanted to start it Nobody
volunteered, so he got a gavel and
called for order. Ray Dunne arose
and moved that nothing be done
until the room had been cleared
of detectives. This was adopted
unanimously. Deserted by their
organizer, Mr. Smith, the rats
scurried out of the room.
Grant Dunne next addressed a
few words to the petroleum workers, explaining to them the nature
and purpose of Smith's plot and
urging them not to take any rash
step until they had considered the
matter thoroughly.
The petroleum workers then
proceeded to elect their own
chairman, selecting a man known
to be favorable to staying in Local 574 and opposed to all splitting tactics. This chairman took
charge and Dunne and the delegation from the Strike Committee
departed.
After a brief discussion, the
petroleum workers appointed a
committee to look into the whole
question more thoroughly and to
report at andther meeting.