Swabeck Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
From New Militant, Vol. II No. 19, 16 May 1936, pp. 1 & 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Will the half million workers, whose fortune and misfortune is harnessed to the brutal and capricious dominance of the gigantic steel empire, finally be organized?
The Committee for Industrial Organization considers this question to be a challenge. It passed the challenge on to the A.F. of L. But, it attached also an offer to contribute a half million dollars and a staff of experienced organizers for an organization campaign, stipulating that conditions necessary really to produce results would require assurance that “all steel workers organized will be granted the permanent right to remain united in one industrial union,” and that “the leadership of the campaign must be such as to inspire confidence of success.” Certainly, more reasonable conditions could not be stipulated.
However, the A.F. of L. Executive Council, now meeting in Washington, D.C., wrathfully spurned the offer and refused to accept its conditions.
Wm. Green declared that the Executive Council would act only if it
were “free from the interference on the part of any group or
groups either within or outside the jurisdiction of the A.F. of L.”
In other words, these distinguished elders flatly rejected the whole
idea presented by the C.I.O.
Convention resolutions of 1934 and 1935 put the A.F. of L. on
record to organize the steel industry. Nevertheless, the net results
to date falls below zero. The steel workers’ union has even
lost the gains it made during the early NRA period. To establish the
responsibility for this failure should not be difficult. It is a well
known fact that the leadership of the steel workers’ union,
headed by Mike Tighe, is even considered by Wm. Green to be so
incompetent as not to merit the confidence necessary to direct a
campaign of organization. Self-complacent bureaucrats, when irritated
by demands for action, usually need a scapegoat, and truly, a better
one than Mike Tighe could hardly be found. But this means nothing
more than the old proverb of the pot calling the kettle black. The
sluggishness of Wm. Green and company would also seem to mirror a
consciousness of their own incompetence. And no doubt; the stubborn
insistence on craft union prerogatives has very likely led them into
a position that they themselves cannot think through to the end when
considering organization of the steel industry.
Still, the real reason for the dismal failure so far is a much more fundamental one. Unwittingly John L. Lewis touched its very nerve center when he addressed himself the other day, on behalf of the C.I.O., directly to the convention of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers.
With withering scorn he condemned the A.F. of L. policy as “inadequate, futile and conceived in a mood of humiliated desperation on the part of men who have for years past trifled with the destinies of 500,000 men employed by your industry and have materially stayed the progress of the American labor movement.” Lewis also addressed his offer directly to the steel workers’ convention. But chances were rather scant for a better response from this gathering than that received from Green.
A direct descendant from the proud Sons of Vulcan, and itself
antedating the formation of the A.F. of L. by several years, the
Amalgamated Association is again reduced to a mere shadow of a union.
It represents today a far cry from the powerful organization that
conducted the Homestead strike in 1892 and cleaned up on the
Pinkertons. Its gain of 150,000 new members during the 1919 steel
strike withered away under the unfortunate leadership of Mike Tighe,
who was then its ancient president and who remains in control today
despite his senility and decrepitude. Even the new spark of life with
which the union was infused as a result of the impulse from the NRA
was too much for the hoary president and his slightly younger
lieutenants. A new set of progressive elements had come into leading
local positions. They condemned in scathing terms the policy of
paralysis; they made some stupid mistakes, but they demanded action
and organization. Mike Tighe knew only the reply of suppression and
expulsion and numerous local lodges were wrecked.
To Mike Tighe the secret rituals and mummery left over from old days of trade union illegality remain a sacred union heritage, more dear to him than activity and progress. And so well did he discharge his obligation to the inviolability of his contract with the steel manufacturers that the union, after more than a half century of existence, counts a paid up membership of not more than 4,800. Needless to say this contract which Mike Tighe holds as sacred, is not meant to embrace more than a scattering of workers here and there is a few mills. It is a contract designed essentially to restrict and to prevent organization.
From this description it would be difficult for any reader to note any real distinction between Mike Tighe and Wm. Green, except the difference of age. Outward differences there are. Actual differences there are none. In essence the formed has carried out the policy of the latter and both are more or less equal partners in the policy and methods of the A.F. of L. bureaucracy. And thus the real reason for the dismal failure of organization in the steel industry – aside from the devastating gross incompetence – can be found only in the position of this bureaucracy.
Wm. Green and his allies do not think of coming to grips with the
problem and undertaking a campaign of organization in the only way
that it could actually succeed. Such ideas are alien and repugnant to
them. Their own role is determined by their attitude to the
capitalist system to which they swear allegiance. They naturally
become champions of the rights of collective bargaining for labor
with themselves, however, occupying the position of agents who are
privileged to bargain both ways. In this role they will endeavor to
gain concessions for the unions but simultaneously they consider
themselves to be the custodians of the interests of capital against
aggression from the rank and file members.
In the steel industry, however, no alternatives are offered. The United States Steel Corporation, is the absolute and despotic ruler. It is in itself an empire within an empire. Only 23 American cities had a greater population than the population of the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1920. Not less than 190,000 workers and their families are dependent for their livelihood upon this corporation. This is America’s largest employer of labor. The directors of this corporation do not at all fancy any ideas of sitting down at conference tables with representatives of labor. Their policy in this respect was laid down in a resolution of June 17, 1901, when J.P. Morgan the Elder organized the United States Steel Corporation. It says:
“We are unalterably opposed to any extension of union labor, and advise subsidiary companies to take a firm position when these questions come up, and say that they are not going to recognize it.”
Every word here is meant just exactly as it is written. Moreover,
the U.S. Steel executives have never deviated from this resolution.
Nor has Mike Tighe ever deviated from his respect for the
inviolability of his contract with the steel companies. He has
understood it and interpreted it just exactly as it was meant to be
understood. This is one of the reasons for the fact that the
organization he leads has only 4,800 members.
Meanwhile modern conditions of production has forged ahead to constantly greater improvement of machinery and efficiency of output, constantly also subordinating the conditions of labor to the control of the capitalist ownership of industry. Under these conditions the whole trade union movement is in danger of utter ineffectiveness, if not actual extinction, unless the basic industries and particularly the steel industry is organized. Even Green, Tighe and company cannot possibly be entirely unaware of this fact, though they may not comprehend its real meaning – or for that matter, care much. But they do know that the tackling of the steel empire is a serious campaign of organization, leaves no room for compromise or for bargaining. Besides it is such a gigantic task and may result in serious bruises because the feudal rulers of this empire believe in fighting it out to the end.
This is the challenge to the whole trade union movement. What the
A.F. of L. Executive Council will do about it is now perfectly clear.
It will do exactly nothing of any serious consequence.
The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers has
just ended its sixty-first annual convention. For days on end it gave
consideration to the offer made by the C.I.O., only by a scant
majority was a conditional acceptance achieved. Mike Tighe, however,
succeeded in maintaining his stranglehold upon the union and making
his bid for the friendship of both Lewis and Green. The final
decision adopted affirms the charter rights of the Amalgamated
Association, which are the rights of sole jurisdiction as an
industrial union. Outside of that the conditional acceptance of the
C.I.O. offer will have real meaning only provided the industrial
union forces take hold of it and carry it into life.
Last year company union representatives from a number of plants held a convention in Newcastle, Pa. at which demands were formulated for wage increases and improved working conditions while the delegates refused to grant admission to management representatives. Shortly thereafter a similar company union convention in Gary, Indiana, considered a proposal for a final breakaway from company control with the vote unanimously in favor of taking independent measures to defend the interests of the workers. These are important signs of a new trend and of a new vitality displayed in an original way. Real possibilities of organization in the steel industry are unquestionably available.
The organization of these workers has now become imperative. But the challenge has been thrown right back into the lap of the industrial union bloc. What will these unions do about it? Trifling with this problem or nibbling at it will not do. A rich opportunity awaits these unions. A spark of new life was manifested at the steel workers’ convention nourished by the pressure for action made by the progressive elements. New unions are growing and gaining ground in several mass production industries from which forces for further extension can be recruited. Practically all of these new unions appear to be ready to continue an aggressive fight for the building of a truly powerful industrial union movement; but its future is bound up with progress in steel.
The organization of the steel industry is a gigantic task. Enormous difficulties will have to be faced and the minimum requirement is nothing less than a gigantic movement capable of surrounding this feudal empire, capable of invading it and executing the necessary tactical flank maneuvers together with the head-on frontal attack. This is the next big job for American labor. Success in this field will no doubt depend much more directly upon the ability, courage and tenacity of the developing genuinely progressive trade union forces than upon the good-will of any leaders.
Swabeck Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
Last updated: 7 May 2018