Futility of Fosterism

7/27/2019 Futility of Fosterism

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The Futility ofFosterism

BYBEN LEGERE


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INTRODUCTION.~In putting .the following articles together' in pam phlet form I havechosen as ~ the title "The Futility of Fosterism " because they constitute arecord of the Am erican Federation of Labor during the past three years;

and the one outstanding fact revealed by a study of the course of the ~policy advocated by W m . Z . Foster,~ of trying to m ake the A. F. of L. aw ork in g cla ss la bo r m ov em en t.Sixteen years ago I joined the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, ash un dr ed s o f th ou sa nd s o f w ork ers h av e jo in ed v ario us in te rn atio nal u nio ns ,of the A. F. of L., under the im pression that I w as joining a ~genuine labor~organ ization, to better m y cond ition as a w orker.In a short tim e I discovered that this union was not a real laborunion at all but m erely a "com m on union" being used by the railroadcom panies .to keep the clerks from organizing, in any w ay that m ight~beeffective for them , by providing, thenm with w hat seem ed to be a laboru nio n b ut w ha t w as in r ea lity a n o rg an iza tio n m ach in e ca re fu lly c on tro lle db y t he c om pa ni es .Like several m illion other A m erican w orkers have done, I left theA . F. of L . in disgust when I discovered the corruption and the iron'l-bound com pany control. But I did not abandon m y efforts to carry on thefight of the w orker versus the boss as activity ~in the I.W .W . w ith yearso f ja il a nd p ris on s erv ic e c an te stif y.W hen I discovered that the A. F. of L. is not a w orkers' organization,though it is true that w orkers constitute the rank and file m em bership, Icould see no reason why I should spend tim e and~energy and dues in sup-port of such a com pany-contro lled organization when it was the obviousd uty,of ev ery honest w orker to be striving to. build a reallabor m ov em ent

i n A m e ri ca .The- t heory that such a labor m ovem ent can be built out of the A. F.of L . has been advocated for 'a generation . It has been tried out over andover again and has alw ays failed . Foster him self tried it out years ago

when he organized the North Am erican Syndicalist L eague and he foundthen that it w ould~not work. The result of all efforts to alter the A. F. ofL . so'that it m ight b e c o m e a real labor m ovement has been failul'eI forth ose w ho tried it w ith con sequent discouragem ent and dem oralizatio n or,at the m ost the form ation of innum erable "indipenden t" unions.The underly ing im pulse of the workers them selves has alw ays beentoward One B ig Union. ~T he I.W .W . cam e nearestto realizing that goal but the I.W .W . began,outside the A . F. of L , being in its origin an attem pt to unite a num ber ofthose "independent''~ unions. I stayed with the I.W .W . until I was~~con-.vinced that w e had theorized too m uch, had undertaken a m uch m ore pre-

~tentious thing than it was possible to accom plish, w hen we set out to,organize som ething that w ould live up to the all-em bracing nam e "Indus-~trial W orkers of the W orld." I concluded w e had "bitten off m ore than


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6 T HE FU TILITY O F FO ST ER ISMwe could chew." But the idea of One Big Union was a m uch sim plerthing and a th in g that can~ be realized.

The year 1919 brought the realization of that possibility nearer thanit has ever been in Am erica since the A . F. ~of L. and the iron and steelm asters backed by the rest of the em ploying class in this country, brokeup the old K nights of Labor forty years ago.In ~1919 a great insurgent m ovem ent w as sweeping through the

unions of the A. F. of L. that had for its goal, O ne Big Union. W herethat m ovem ent took definite shape and becam e coherent the program meadvocated was SEC ESSIO N of local unions from their various Interna-tionals and the formation of One B ig Union.This m ovem ent w as m ost advanced in W estern Canada and the O neB ig U nion o f C ana da w as th e re sult. ~It w as form ed by the SECESSION of m ost of the local unions in thefour western provinces of C anada and w hen it was launched in June, 1919,it not only laid the foundation of a real labor m ovem ent but at the sam etim e it practically wiped out the A. F. of L. in western C anada and m adeit im possible for ~ th at organizatio n to ever again m obilize the m ass of theworkers in that part of the country in a union controlled by the boss.Though the A . F. of L. fought hard ,to recover that lost ground a nd ' h adthe help of the em ployers and the governm ent and spent m any hundredsof thou sands of dollars, it has nev er been able to re-establish its p restigein W es ter n C an ad a.Though every effort has been m ade to destroy the' C anadian O.B .U.,it has lived through the storm and today constitutes the firm est founda-tion upon which a labor m ovem ent m ay be built on th is continent.The strange th ing about what we will call "Fosterism " in this pam -phlet is that it was suddenly revived in the United States in 1920 just

as the influence ~ of the W estern C anadian secession m ovem ent w as' begin-ning to be felt on the A merican side of the border.It w as a tim e when the m illion and a half of workers that have sincedropped out of the A. F. of L . were in rebellion and beginning to tear at

the bonds that tied them up in the capitalist-controlled Internationals ofthe A . F. of L.Instead of prom oting the SE CE SSIO N m ovem ent toward the O ne B igU nion, Foster and those who follow ed him began a frenzied cam paign toconvince the insurgent unionists that they should "stay in the A . F. of L."W hy such a policy w as adopted at that tim e m ay never be satisfac-to rily ex plained b ut three years o f it had dem onstrated its fu tility, because

the "insurgents" did not "stay in the A. F. of L." and the only effect thepropaganda of that idea has had w as to side-track the tendency towardSECESSION and the form ation of a real labor m ovem ent, W ITH OU TSAVING THAT STRENG TH OF NU M BERS FOR THE A. F. of L.The m aster class on this continent, terror-stricken as it was by theswing toward One Big Union that began in W innipeg in 1919, m ust behigh ly am used today b y the pro paganda of "F osterism ."In Canada, however, the Foster idea proved to be a m ore seriousthing than in the United States because there the workers had~ m ade their

T HE FUTILITY OF FOSTE RISM 7start. SE'CESSIO N had actually been accom plished and a real laborm ovem ent launched. Then cam e the idea of "back to the A. F. of L." and -"bore from within." T he idea was expressed through the W orkers' Partyof Canada and that organization has covered its early history with in-glorious infam y by devoting m ost of its energy to an effort to destroyth e O .B .U .

The follow ers of Foster in C anada, have for two years allowed them -selves to be made the pawns of the C anadian plutocracy in their destruc-tive cam paign against the O.BU . in a country w here the O.B.U . was theO NLY LABOR O RGAN IZA TIO N THA T STOOD BETW EEN TH EW ORK ERS A ND THE O RGAN IZED ASSA ULT A ND EXPLOITATIONO F T HE E MPL OY ER S.How m any w ere stool-pigeons of the employers and w hat part theyplayed in shaping the policies of the W orkers' Party~and Trade Union

E ducational L eague m ovem ents in C anada m ay never be know n, but th oseof us w ho know they are always present in every "w ing" of the workers'm ovem ent realize how viciously they have played their gam e with thefollowers of Foster. 'I am not suggesting here that Foster and the other genuine zealotsfor his theories of labor organization are responsible for the activities of

such agents any m ore than they are responsible for the D epartm ent ofJustice stool-pigeon that worm ed his way into their Executive C ounciland brought about the B ridgem an, M ichigan, raid, which m ay yet resultin sending som e good m en to prison.T he em ployers will combat ALL phases of ~the working class m ove-m ent and use A LL weapons in that struggle; but those of us w ho under-stand these things ought to be extrem ely careful in the course we taketo advance pet theories at the possible expense of injury to a~ real work-i ng c la ss o rg an iz at io n. 'I have not attem pted to deal with Foster's theories in these articles.I m erely point to the record of the A . F. of L. over the past three yearsand picture the condition of that alleged labor m ovem ent as show n by itsconv entions in evidence o f the' utter futility of the F oster program me.Those who are given to theorizing m ight require a refutation of the

Foster philosophy before they could be convinced that the thing will notw ork, but the unionist who is also a realist will take cognizance of theresults achieved over a reasonable period of tim e and for such the recordof these three years should be enough. That record as shown here is oneof com plete failure and those workers w ho have faithfully~followed theslogans of Foster, applied the m edicine prescribed and found that it k illsinstead of cures will now have the opportunity of acknowledging theirerror. They w ill frankly adm it that they have tried the plan out andfound by their own experience that the A . F. of L. cannot be used, by theworkers. ~The logical step then is to abandon it and join w ith , the rest of usin building an Am erican labor m ovem ent that will be worthy the nam e.For the theorists I w ould suggest a little m ore careful analysis of thec ar din al p rin cip les o f th e F os te r p hilo so ph y.


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12 THE FUTILITY OF FO STERISM~G ()M PE RS ' "G RE A11 A ME RIC AlIl L AB OR M OV EM EN T" E XPE LST HE M IL IT AN T M IN OR IT Y.

M y approach to the forty_third annual convention of the AmericanFederationof Labor at Portland, Oregon, where I am now enjoying theshow from a seat in the gallery, was m ade by way of Seattle, W ash.Stopping a while in Seattle gave me an opportunity to observe thecondition of the ,so-called" A merican L abor m ovem ent" in w hat has longbeen regarded as its m ost progressive and m ost hopeful centre.

The tragedy of labor in the United States is very well illustrated byt he s ad c on di ti on o f S ea tt le . 'I had been in Seattle in the spring of 1919 when the wage-workers of ~that city made the m ost effective demonstration of solidarity that hasever been m ade in any city in the United States by workers organized inthe A. F. of L.At that tim e the labor unions. of Seattle, acting together through theC entral Labor Council, pretty well tied up the industries of the city for afew days by a G eneral S trike.Although the Seattle General Strike did not assume anything ap-proaching the extent and effectiveness of the great W innipeg strike of ~

the sam e year, it w as, nevertheless, the m ost progressive m ove ever m adethrough an A. F. of L. Central Labor C ouncil in the United States.If there is hope in. t he A. F. of L. one would naturally expect to seesom e rays of it in Seattle, but there is nothing there today to cheer onewith the thought that this centre may becom e a stronghold of an advanc-. in g w or ke rs ' m ov em en t.The Seattle C entraf~Labor C ouncil is today in the act of crawling~and cringing before the autocratic G om pers m achine w hich's chastizingthat body, hum iliating it and making an example of it for the approvalof all the labor-hating exploiters of the country and particularly of theN orthw est and for the intim idation of other rebe1 C entral L abor C ouncilsof.. the A. F. of L. wherever they ma,y be found., ~SEATTLE LABOR M OVEM ENT SHOT TO PIECESIn 1919 behind the Seattle Central Labor Council stood a force ofmore than 60,000 organized workers, m ilitant and courageous. Today

less than 20,000 remain and the m ilitancyandcourage has been so thor-oughlystam ped out that the Cham ber of Com merce in that sad city crowsw ith glee over thE ! spinelessness of labor there and boasts of the freedomfrom strikes that S eattle enjoys.In 1919 I found Seattle a beehive of union activity. One becam e w ellaware of the power of organized labor in the com m unity five m inutesafter stepping from the train. Evidences of it were on every hand. Todayin S ea ttle o ne g ets th e fe elin g o f b ein g in a stro ng ho ld o f " op en -s ho pp ers ."In 1919 labor was respected in Seattle and in spite of the ranting ofOle Hanson on safe platform s in other cities, he and his kind were veryquiet and tame at home. In fact it was so uncomfortable for O le inSeattle that he m oved to Los A ngeles which then had the reputation ofbeing Am erica's star scab-town. Ole m ight safely return to Seattle now,

~ ~~~ fo rS ea ttle ~ is f ast ap proa chin g the co nd ition th at ga ve L os A ng ele s its~reputation. ~~, ' T oday in S eattle, the aggressiveness and boastfulness of all the labor.~ hating forces is growing by leaps and bounds and it m ay not be long

~ b efo re C ha mb er o f C om m erc e i ns pire d ly nc hin g-b ee s m ay d isp os e o f a nyre ma in in g v es tig e o f m il ita nc y th at m ay b e le ft in th at c it y. ,In fact the only sign of life I found in the Seattle labor' m ovem entwas at. the I.W .W . headquarters, where lumber-workers and otherm igratory w orkers, m aking Seattle their center on their way to and fromthe jobs in the cam ps, keep things stirring and~ save Seattle from seem ingabsolu te ly hopeless . 'In 1919 the Seattle unionists were publishing a daily paper, the"Union R ecord," that was easily the best labor newspaper in Am erica,but today the U nion Record is one of the yellowest rags in the country,catering to every elem ent that a H earst new spaper caters to w ith a degreeof inefficiency in its efforts to im itate a Hearst sheet that m akes itsdegeneracy one of the saddest things I've seen in labor journalism .

GOM PER S APPLIES THE W HIP TO ~ SEATTLE. T he co lla ps e o f th e-S eattle lab or m ov em en t ec ho ed th ro ugh , th e o pe n-ing' days of this convention in Portland because Gompers and his Execu-tive Council in session just previous to the opening of the conventionwere engaged in the task of driving the final nails into the coffin of the

S ea ttle C en tra l L ab or C ou nc il.F or several m onths the chastizing of Seattle labor has.: b een going on,and on the opening day of the convention the E xecutive C ouncil's hearingof the Seattle case concluded with the ultim atum in w hich~ the Seattleunionists are given thirty days to make a public repudiation ofall their~progressive policies or have the charter of the Central Labor Councilrevoked.The whole story of Seattle is too long to relate in this article butthe substance of the A . F. of L. ultim atum is that Seattle must repudiate,its endorsem ent of a dem and for recognition of S oviet R ussia, repudiateits action in sending H ulet M . W e lls to the C ongress of the M oscow Inter-nationale, repudiate its endorsem ent of the Farm er-L abor Party and gen-erally prom ise to support "all the policies of the F ederation in all nationala nd i nt er na ti on al r el ati on s a nd p ol ic ie s." ~In 1919 the Seattle Central, Labor Council was doing things m uchm ore annoying to the officialdom of the A. F. of L. than the politicalactivities and expression w hich is now com plained of but in 1919 G om persand his hierarchy of International officials did not dare to disciplineS eattle. H ad they tried it in that year, 60,000 w orkers back of the m ilitantSeattle Central Labor C ouncil would have pretty nearly put the A. F. ofL . out of com mission in this country. T he revocation,~of their charter then'W ould h ave been met by a movement with enough guts to go ahead to theform ation of a real labor m ovem ent and hundreds of thousands of otherworkers then in the A.F. of L., learning its true character, would havef ol lo w ed t he m .Gom pers knew this because that was the year that his henchm en inthe Internationals tried discipIininga sim ilar militant C entral Labor

THE FUTILITY OF FOSTERISM 13


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~ T HE FUTIL ITY OF FO ST ER ISM ~uotations from the B utte B ulletin , edited by D unne as w ell as som e let~~

~ters written by Dunne to Fred M errick of Pittsburg and seized by Depart~ment of Justice agents in raids m ade w hen M errick was arrested in thatcity. The m anner in which Green secures quotations from letters Seized~

by Departm ent of Justice agents w ill probably be as hard for him toexplain as w ere the questio ns raised b y D unne.Follow ing G reen's attack, P hilipM urray, V ice-P resid ent of the M ineW orkers, with an equally venom ous speech m ade the m otion to unseatD unne as a' delegate. ~A SPLEND ID FIGH TING SPEEC HGom pers~ then. allowed Dunne to answ er his accusers and I want to ~record th at the speech that fo llow ed w as the m ost m asterly arraignm entof the A . F. of L . officialdom th at I hav e ever listened to. D unne certainly"bored from w ithin" and bored so efficiently that he bored a hole and lethimself out. It was a splendid, fearless answer, retracting nothing,apologizing for nothing, am plifying his accusations against the gang oflabor fakirs around him until they w rithed and fum ed in their seats.~ ~T heaccusation m ade by Dunne that Lewis is now trying to deliver the Herrinm iners, acquitted by a jury , up to the hangm an rem ains unansw ered byLew is and Green. In fact none of the charges made by Dunne w ereanswered and in an interchange of ~questions and answers after Dunnefinished his speech, G reen w as only saved from an em barrassing situationby the gavel of G om pers.'

After a recess in which the m achine m obilized its forces for a sm ash-ing retaliation upon D unne for his daring to hurl the truth so boldly intothe faces of the autocrats of the "Am erican labor m ovem ent" the m inersp la ye d th eir tr um p c ard . ~Fred M ooney, of W est Virginia, took the floor and in a speech m adealm ost. incoherent by its wildness and raving supported the dem an for.D un ne's ex pu ls io n fro m th e co nv en tio n.

A PITIFUL B ET RA YALIt was one of the saddest spectacles I have ever seen when M ooney,the m ilitant fighting m iner, w ith a clean and courageous record in thelabor m ov em ent lined~ u p in support of L ew is an d G reen.The explanation of it is too obvious to need com m ent. In a m onth

M ooney him self faces a jury on the charge of m urder in W esd V irginia.It is well known that without the support of the Lewis treasury the heroicW est Virginia m iners w ould face the W est Virginia hangm an w ithoutadequate defense. Lewis is not only trying to deliver up the Herrinm iners to the Illinois hangm an but he holds the noose over the neck of anhonest, militant worker in the cause of Labor until he perjures his soul~in the defense of the corruption of the L ew is official m achine.So confident and aggressive were the heresy-hunters after thespeeches of M ooney and a few others that Hutcheson of the C arpentersdem anded a roll calI vote so that every delegate who dared to voteagainst the unseating of DUnnle m ight be m arked for further slaughter.The seven besides Dunne, who dared to register their "no's" w ill nodoubt soon feel th e w eight of the official iron heel.

, THE FU TILITY O F FDSTER ISM 17"NO SIG N OF TH E BORERS

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D un ne left the convention h alI, and the labor ~ allies of the A mericanplutocracy settled back w ith satisfaction to dispose o f obnoxious resolu-tions and en joy, undisturbed by any further evidence of in su rgency, theirforty-third an nual sm oke, talk and booze fest.The resolutions on am algam ation were quickly voted down withoutdiscussion, the only voice heard upon the subject being that piping tenorof the whipped "radical" Duncan from Seattle, who rose to assure the"fat boys" that he w as with them in their fight against amalgam ationand all of Foster's works and had really alw ays been with them .I looked forward to the com plete crushing of every sign of progres-siveness within the A. F. of L. during the days rem aining before thisconvention ends. In m y next article I will sum up the ~doings of this gang~that I have long contended do not represent Labor in A merica and arem aintained in their present m asquerade as the "Am erican Labor M ove~m e nt " o nl y b y c ap it al is t c on se nt a nd c ol lu si on . 'I shall also try to find some explanation of the strange phenom enaof m en like W illiam F . D unne, w hose fearless, uncom prom ising arraign-m ent of this convention shook it m ore than it has been stirred in all itsforty~three years, taking the position that it was the convention of theA mer ica n L ab or m ov em en t h e w as ad dre ss in g.I can think of no m ore convincing argum ent for the One Big U nionprogram me of building a real labor m ovement on this continent upon arank and file basis than the experience of Dunne in this convention. Itshould not take m any m ore such conventions to convince the w orkers oft he f uti li ty o f " bo ri ng ~ f ro m w it hi n."

PORTLA ND CON VENTION PUTRID W ITH RAN K RE-ACTIONEstablishing a new record for re~action, the forty-third annual con-vention of the Am erican Federation of Labor at Portland, Oregon, hasjust gone through the usual cerem ony of electing Gom pers president foranother term and adjourned until next year, when the "gang" gets to-gether again at EI Paso, Texas.W hy EI Paso was picked out m ay be the subject of som e comm ent inpassing. Probably because it will take this bunch of labor fakirs furtheraw ay fro m the A merican w orking class and certainly because it w ill brm g

them nearer to unlim ited booze, which is one of the ideals for which thisa lle ged lab or o rg an iz atio n alw ay s m ak es a v alia nt f ig ht.El Paso sent a com m ittee of politicians to Portland to lobby for theconvention. The condition of som e of the delegates that voted for EIPaso was a testim onial to the effectiveness of the kick in the stuff thecom mittee brought up from the M exican bo rder.It w as also argued that the M exican Federation of Labor wouldarrange to hold its convention at the sam e tim e on the otherside of theriver. In view of the fact that Am erican capitalists seeking the oppor-tunity to exploit M exican resou rces and M exican labor, are nO W m akingevery effort to curb the "Reds" in the M exican labor m ovem ent, it m aybe their hope that Gom pers will be an effective aid to the Obregongovernm ent in that cam paign. ~ ~


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18 TH E FUTILIT Y OF FO ST ER ISMThis m ay be surm ised in view of the fact that the outstanding featureof this A . F. of L . conv ention w as the bold attack it m ade o n "B olshevism ."It m ay even be said that the only im portant business transacted at Port-land w as th e placing of the F 'ederation on record as unqualifiedly against.B olshevism and in favor of beer.

BEER BRIN GS O UT ORA TORYThe discussion on the resolution in favor of "light wines and beer"

took up\nearly as m uch tim e as was given to the' unseating of Delegate"B ill" D unne, the lone C om munist cham pion in the conventio n.That w as not because there w as any real opposition to beer, as onlyone delegate recorded him self as against the beer resolu tion and he waspub licly repud iated by the rest of his In ternational delegation. It seem edhow ever as though a great m any delegates had pledged the brewers thatthey would fight for the resolution on the floor and so m any speeches werem ade by delegates who had rem ained silent for ten days.~ ~ ~~The quality and flavor of these speeches revealed the high degree ofintellectual attainm ent of these fat m isleaders of labor and fully justifiedDunne's charge that Gom pers has always .taken care to keep any vestigeof intellect from developing am ong the officialdo m of the internationalu nio ns th at co mp os e h is la bo r m ac hin e.

The orations in favor of beer should all 00 published by the bootleg-gers and distributed as propaganda for their cause to show the low orderof in tellig ence possessed by th e o pponents of their calling.The worst thing that can be said against the wage-workers on the.Am erican continent is that they are to blam e for the display of ignoranceand incom petence m ade by these d elegates ~ of l abor at P ortland.

PROG RESSIVES ALM OST W IPED OU TThe other outstanding achievem ent of the convention, nam ely, the" cru sh in g o f B ols he vis m," ~w as fo llo we d u p b y th e d efe at o f e ve ry p ro gr es -s iv e r es ol ut io n i nt ro d uc ed .The attem pt to get the A. F. of L. to endorse a Farm er-Labor Partyw as defeated by a roll call vote of 25,066 votes to 1 ,895.R esolutions asking for the recognition of Soviet Russia found half adozen delegates w ith enough courage to speak in favor of them , but whenthe vote w as taken it was so overwhelm ingly against recognition that theattem pt to get a roll call vote was laughed out of the convention.T he m ost crushing defeat of all the~ p rogressives cam e on the variousresolu tions favoring "am algam ation." The report of the com m ittee onthese resolutions w as no t only~ one of non-concurrence but the com mitteesaw fit to ad d a vigorous denu nciation of the "am algam atio nists" as"sin-ister agents, propagandists and destructionists of a foreign foe" and calledupon the conv ention to reaffirm the p rinciples o f "craft unionism ."S o thoroug hly subdued w ere the so-called progressive forces that notone rose to speak in favor of the "am algam ation" resolutions. Dunne, theonly delegate in the convention w ho would have had guts enough to fight

for the idea had been ex pelled from the conventio n earlier the sam e after-

T HE FUTILIT Y O F FOSTER ISM 19noon by a vote of 27,837 to 108, only 8 delegates daring to vote againstthe m otion to unseat him .The "am algam ation" resolution w ould have been voted dow n W IT H-OU T A NY DEBATE A T ALL had not Jam es Duncan of Seattle added tothe disgrace already brought upon the Seattle labor m ovem ent by risingto m ake a speech against "am algam ation" which was so evidently an

~ atte mpt to c urry fa vo r w ith th e G om pe rs m ac hine th at e ven the e ne mie sof the "am algam ation" m ovem ent sh ow ed their con tem pt for his cringings up po rt o f t he m . ~~ .N ot a sing le v oice w as h eard voting in fav or of "am algam ation."

C EN TR AL B OD IE S SNU BBE D AG AINThe Central Labor Union has long been a thorn in the side of theA . F. of L. The International presidents w ould undoubtedly like to elim i-nate local central labor bodies from the A. F. of L. structure. The reasonfor this is because a local central labor body that really tries to functionand becom es the least active in organizing the workers or fighting' theboss is certain to run afoul of the authority of the. Intern ational union s.Every convention of the A . F. of L. reveals conflicts between activecentral labor bodiesand the officialdom of som e of the Internationalunions. Gom pers has always tried to keep the central bodies from annoy-ing the ~ officialdom by their activities and as a con sequence the average

A. F. of L . central body is m erely a discussion club, often not even that.So long as delegates to a central body m erely m eet and smoke and talkand pass resolutions they are harm less an d in keeping w ith the characterof the A. F. of L. ~ ~The fact is that 'a central labor union in a w ell-organized city is thenearest approach to a Soviet that we have in Am erica. It is a council 'ofthe organized w orking class of the com munity and theoretically it shouldbe able to bring about the solidarity and united action' of all the organizedworkers in that com m unity. But just let a central labor union of the A.F. of L . try any, such thing. 'Im m ediately the power and control of theInternational o fficials is felt and the w orkers united throug h the centrallabor union are divided into a hundred fragm ents with no power w hat-e ve r o f u ni te d a ct io n. T he n th e fig ht b eg in s. ~That is the situation that brought about the conflict between theSeattle Central Labor Council 'and the A. F. of L . The Seattle workerstried to m ake their central body function and for a time they did som egood work, but w hen the officialdom began to curb them , they retreatedinstead of going forward as W innipeg did in 1919.

LA DY BA RBERS M UST NO T O RG AN IZEThe attitude of the A. F. of L. tow ard activity by central bodies w ass ho wn w he n a re so lu tio n s po ns ore d'b y th e S ea ttle an d M in ne ap olis c en tr allabor unions calling upon the A. F. of L. to organize the lady barbers,cam e up. 'In Seattle the lady barbers organized 100 per cent and wereadm itted into the C entral Labor C ouncil. They established the best jobconditions in the shops they control to be found in any barber shops inthe country, but the International Journeym en B arbers Union refused totake them in. The officials of this union are trying to drive w om en out of


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20~ T HE FUTILITY O F FO ST ERISMthe "profession" on the ground that they are not com petent and do notbecom e "artists," so the union draws the line against the fem ale sex.The w om en continue to break into the "tonsorial profession" in ever ~in creasing nu mb ers, 'how ever, an d the S eattle C entral L abor C ouncil tried ~to deal with that fact. The result was ~that the council was forced toex pe l th e d eleg ates o f th elad y b ar ber s an d th e co nv en tio n o verw helm in glybacked up the decree of President Fischer, of the Journeym en B arbers,, "that the lady barbers m ust not be organized by the A . F. of L."There is absolutely no solution for a situation like this except seces-sion from the A . F . of L. If the Seattle unionists in 1919 had rallied roundtheir central body and resisted the au thority of the International officialsby seceeding from their various internationals the Seattle labor move-_m ent would, today, be in a strong and healthy condition instead of in thestate o f d eca y th at it is. ~A nother proposition from the central bodies that w as voted dow n bythe convention w as one to CO M PEL all local unions in any locality tobecom e affiliated with the C entral Labor Union and with the State Fed-eration of L abor. T his proposal was not fostered by the radicals so m uchas~ b y som e of the reactionary politicians who are finding it difficult toplay their political gam e through the central and state~bodies withoutsufficient funds and their only purpose w as to try and increase the percapita g oing to the central bod ies.T he International presidents saw the dangers ,how ever, and the reso~lution w as vigorously opposed by W . D . M ahon, head of the street rail~w ay m en , an d s ev era l o th er in te rn atio na l o fficia ls . ~They m ade it clear that AN Y m ove that ~in ANY way tended to

. strengthen the central bodies would be fought and beaten. It "would notbe a great surprise if som e future A. F. of L. convention took steps tow ip e o ut th e ce ntra l b od ies co mp le te ly .,~SY MPA TH ET IC ST RIK ES FO RB ID DE N

In 1920, when I attended the A. F. of L. convention in M ontreal, theproblem of curbing central bodies was even m ore acute than now . Atthat time the Central Labor Union of Salem , M ass., brought in a resolu-tion asking the A . F. of L. to prevail upon the various Internationalunions to call a general strike in the district north of Boston to aid thestriking m achinists of the United Shoe M achinery C om pany at Beverly.T he usual o verw helm ing defeat of the resolution w as follow ed by theloss of the strike and the com plete collapse of the labor movem ent inthat section. This has been the experience of the workers in the A. F. ofL. all over the country. In hundreds of places during the past ten orfifteen years local central bodies have tried to function by bringing aboutsym pathetic general strikes in support of som e affiliated group that wasm aking a fight for better job conditions. Always such efforts have beenkilled by the A. F. of L.W hen such a situation arises the hopelessness of the A. F. of L. isrevealed and invariably the disillusion ment and disgu st of the defeatedw orkers results in th eir abandoning the labor m ovem ent. T he only coursew hich m ay save a' locality that has encountered the stagnating influ ence

THE FUT ILIT Y O F FOSTER ISM 21~of A . F. of L. official dom ination is for the locals affiliated with suchcentral bodies to secede from their internationals and transform their, c en tra l la bo r u nio n in to a C en tra l L ab or C ou nc il o f the O ne B ig U nion .T hi s w as p ro ve n a t W in nip eg ~Old Andrew Furuseth, of the Seam en's Union, sounded the warningnote to his fellow internatio nal presidents w hen he denounced the desireof the Seattle central body to organize the lady barbers as an attempt toprom ote the One B ig Union idea. Furuseth also brought in a resolution

on the last day calling upon the A. F. of L. to conduct an investigationof the I.W .W , charging that tw o-thirds of its m em bership is m ade up ofprivate detectives operating in the interests of the S hipping B oard.T he e xp la na ti on o f t hi s f in al f ro th in g s pa sm o f w it ch -f in di ng i nd ul ge din by Furuseth and unanim ously approved by the convention is found inthe fact that Furuseth 's union is rapidly m elting away. The Interna-tional Seam en's Union has lost nearly 90 per cent of its m em bership inthe last two years. By their own report, 85,400 mem bers have deserted"Andy" since 1921. W hile it is true that about ten thousand of theseseam en have had the good sense to join the I.W .W . instead of falling intothe usual pessim istic disorganized state, m ost of these thousands of sea-m en sim ply quit because they could n o longer stan d the rotten corruptionand w eak ness of the A . F . o f L . and the official dom in ation of old F uru seth.THE RECORD O F DECA Y

The condition of the Seam en's Union is typical of nearly every In-ternational union of the A . F. of L. that has had any num erical strengtham ong workers really engaged in the im portant industrial activ ities oft he c o un tr y. ~The report of the Executive Council confesses to a loss of 262,000m em bers during the past year. The figures submitted here are based uponthe per capita tax paid to the A. F. of L. It is well known that for m anyyears a num ber of unions have paid per capita to the A. F. of L. far inexcess of their actual m em bership in order that their delegates m ay haveincreased voting pow er in A . F. of L . convention s, w here the votes allow ed~to each delegate is based upon the am ount of per capita his organization'pays to the federation. T his per capita is sm all and certain organizationshave been in the habit of paying annually a lum p sum to the federationregardless of w hat their actual m em bership is.

, F or e xam ple , the B ric klay ers' U nio n ha s p aid pe r ca pita fo r ex ac tly70,000 m em bers for the past ten years although they probably have neverhad nearly that m any bricklayers organized in A merica and have cer~tainly lost a good m any m em bers during the last few years. But they""have a big treasury and can easily afford to pay the per capita that givestheir delegation 700 votes in every A . F . of L . conv ention.D UNCAN DRUNK BUT TRUTHFU L

The Glass Bottle Blow ers have paid per capita for exactly 10,000m em bers for a sim ilar period of tim e. The G ranite Cutters' Union ofwhich Jam es A. D uncan, First Vice-President of the A. F. of L., is, Inter-national President, has paid per capita on 10,000 for m ore than ten years~ ~


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22 THE FUTILITY O F FOSTERISM~although Duncan him self w as heard to say to one of the British fraternal I'elegates in the M ultnom ah Hotel that his union was "dead" when thedelegate inquired about the condition of the Granite Cutters. And theysay that Duncan was not quite sober at the tim e, so he was probablytelling the truth, as som e men do when they are drunk.The United Hatters, M etal Lathers, Plumbers, Stage. Em ployees,T ailors, S treet R ailw ay M en, Photo-E ngravers, B ill Posters, U nited G ar-m ent W orkers and a num ber of other organizations always pay per capitaupon the same num ber, with never any fluctuation, and it is well knownin som e cases that the number has always been far in excess of the actualmembership in order to give these organizations voting power in theconvention.As most of these organizations are always found supporting everyreactionary m easure of the Gom pers m achine, it is' easy to understandthe method in this m atter of inflating membership to get votes in theconvention.

M ORE THAN A MILLION LOSSIn spite of this inflation of m em bership the official report show s thatthe A. F. of L. has lost more than a m illion m em bers since 1920, whilea fair estim ate of the actual loss in the last three years would be nearera m illion and a half.The following figures, showing Joss in m em bership, taken from theofficial report shows how the A. F. of L. has crum bled since 1920:

~ S ea m en 's U ni on -L os s 8 5, 40 0 m e mb er s, a bo ut 9 0% .U nited T extile W orkers-L oss 74,900, about 75% .B lacksm iths' International-Loss 45,000 m em bers since 1921, about90 %B oilerm ak ers -L os s 7 3,6 00 s in ce 1 92 0, a bo ut 7 5% .B rotherhood of R ailw ay C lerks-L oss 90,000, about 50% .H otel & R estaurant E mployees-L oss 22,000, about 40% .Am algam ated Iron, Steel & Tin W orkers-Loss 19,800, about 65% .L on gs ho rem en -L os s 3 9,7 00 , a bo ut 6 0% .M ach in is ts -L os s 2 33 ,5 00 , a bo ut 7 0% .M eat C utters & B utchers-L oss 54,900, about 80% .M ine, M ill & S melter W orkers-L oss 13,000, about 60% .O il F ie ld W o rk er s- Lo ss 2 2, 30 0, a b o ut 9 2% . 'P ainters-L oss 20,500, about 20% .M ou ld er s-L oss 2 6,4 00 , a bou t 5 0% .M aintenance of W ay E mployees-L oss 16,500, about 35% .R ailw ay C arm en-L oss 40,000, about 20% since 1921.B ridge & Structural Iron W orkers-L oss since 1920, 10,000, about 50%T eam ste rs -L os s 3 8,1 00 , a bo ut 3 5% .T ob acc o W ork ers -L os s 1 3,3 00 , a bo ut 9 0% .International L adies G arm ent W orkers-L oss 14,200, about 15% .U nited M ine W orkers-L oss 20,800, about 5% ~U nited L eather W orkers-L oss 9,700, about 85% .Pulp, S ulphite & P aper M ill W orkers-L oss 6,700, about 65% .S witc hm en 's U nio n-L os s 3 ,3 00 , ab ou t 2 5% .

~THE FUTILITY OF FOSTERISM 23

R ailr oad S ig na lm en -L os s 3 ,4 00 , a bo ut 250/0.Piano & O rgan W orkers-L oss 2,500, about 750/0.J ew el ry W o rk er s- Lo ss 5 ,9 00 , a bo ut' 75 %.M asters, M ates & Pilots-Loss 3,000, about 35% .B rotherhood of Paper M akers-L oss 3,700, about 35% .T he C arpenters have lost 16,000 m em ~bers, according to their report,which is no doubt greatly padded in order to keep their vote of m orethan three thousand in the convention, as it is certain that a great many

carpenters left thE ~organization during the "open shop" drive and only asm all percentage of them were won back during the building' boom thats om e c ities in th e U nited S tates h av e ex per ie nced .T he B rew ery W orkers, B ookbinders, R etail C lerks, Stationary F ire-m en,and Teachers have each lost about one-half their m em bership since1920, w hile the T im berw orkers, w hich had over 10,000 m em bers in 1920,has been w iped out entirely and is reportd as having D IS BA ND ED .T he M etal P olishers have lost 3,300 m em bers or' about one-third.T he losses am ong those local unions directly affiliated w ith the F ed-eration total 91,700 m em bers, or m ore than 600/0 o f th e to tal m em bers hipso aff il iated .BOOT AND SHOE REPORT FALSE

The B oot & Shoe W orkers Union report a loss of only 6,800 memberssince 1920. These figures are unqualifiedly false as their report showsthat they lost only 300 members in the past year, while it is weB knownthat the Brockton strike last June carried about 13,000 members out ofthE! B oot and Shoe, not more than 75% of whom have been forced backinto that notorious "com pany union," although the strike w as broken andthe m anufacturers are forcing ~the workers to pay dues to the Boot andShoe in order to work in the Brockton district. The Boot and Shoe hasprobably lost at least 5,000 members during the past year, m aking a totalloss of about 30% of their organization since 1920.T he B rockton st,rikers, how ever, claim ed that all previous m em ber-ship figures of the Boot and Shoe were greatly padded and that theBrockton district comprised about 70% of the total membership, so thereal loss seustained by' the B oot and Shoe since 1920 w ould probably bea t l ea st o ne -h al f.The Typographical Union, in spite of its closed shop and job trustconditions, has lost 6,700 m em bers since 1920, so it can be seen that eventhe m ost strongly entrenched of the craft unions are decaying.T he Jew elry W orkers, figures are interesting. T his organization w asthrow n out of the A. F. of L. at M ontreal as a result of a jurisdictionalfight and now has crawled back into the fold with 750/0 o f it s m em be rs hipgone. In 1920 it was represented~at M ontreal by Sam Beardsley, a So-cialist who as president of the organization was counted one of the pro-gressive "borers" for industrial unionism within the A. F. of L. I don'tknow what has becom e of "Sam ," but his "progressive" union sent as itsrepresentative to this convention one of the slimiest rats I've ever seenin a so -called la bo r g ath erin g, a fello w na me d G old stein , w ho d is tin gu ish edhim self by making a charge that "Bill"~ Dunne was a member of the Ku


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~ 24 THE FUT ILITY OF FO ST ER ISMKlux K lan and getting the protection of G om pers' gavel w hen Dunnetried to get the floor to answer his charge.If the rank and file of the Jewelry W orkers had gone ahead to theO .B .U . in 1 920 and left G old stein and his handfu l of~ rem aining m e'm bersto go. b ack to the A. F. of L., those workers would now have an effectiveo rg an iz at io n i n t he U ni te d S ta te s. ~, , T HE D IS EA SE IN C UR AB LE ~

~A study of the above figures will show that m ost of the unions inthe A., F. of L . that are com posed of workers in any of' the im portanttrades or industries of the country, have 'been reduced to a state of help-~~~lessness and there is nothing to indicate that any of them ~can hope torecover. In fact the evidence of decay is appearin g~ ~now , m ore th an everb efo re, am on g th os e o rg an iza tio ns th at h av e lo ng b ee n s tr on gly in tr en ch edwith closed shop job conditions and the figures do not begin to show 'thep itifu l w eakn ess of organ ized labo r in A merica as it is expressed th roughth e o rg an iza tio ns re pre sen te d a t th is c on ve ntio n.The extent of decay since 1920 ' was surprising to m e, as I had beenled to believe that although great losses of m em bership had m arked thehistory of the past three years, there was a com pensating increase ofrank and file enlightenm ent and the m ovem ents for ~ ''am algam ation'' ando th er " pr og re ss iv e" id eas s uc h a s a lab or ~p ar ty ,~ Ru ss ia n r ec og nitio n, etc .,,~ ~ w ere m aking great headway in the A. F. of L., If that w ere really true there should be som e reflection of it in anA. F. of L.convention, but the fact,I found was that even the "progres-s iv es " h av e ~ be en p r et ty g en er al ly e li mi na te d o r a bs or be d. ,~Of the "old guard" of anti-G om pers delegates there rem ained only

,one who took the floor with any vigor in support of the "progressive"~, m ea sure s, th at o ne be in g M ax H aye s o f~ Cle ve la nd . O n th e o th er h and , I

found the m iners now solidly lined up with the G om pers m achine anddelegates like John H . W alker and Jam es~D uncan of Seattle taking astand w ith the~~reactionaries, while the real "borers from within," w ho~.w ere strongly~ represen ted at the M ontreal conventIO n, had but o ne repre-sentative in Portland to raise his voice on the floor. ~~That one w as "B ill" D unne of B utte, and he "bored" so w eIl that he'"bored" out before any of the real business of the convention began.In m y next and ,concluding article on this convention I will try to

analyze the~ condition of the A m erican labor m ovem ent as revealed byth is conventio n an d the course it h as follow ed sin ce the M on treal conven-tion in 192 0. '~ I cam e away from Portland m are firm ly convinced than ever thatSEC ESSIO N and the building up of the ONE BIG U NION is the propercourse to pursue.T HE F UT IL IT Y O FFO ST ER IS M

~ I~ T he P ortland 'C onvention of the A merican F ~ederatio n~ o f L abor notonly established a new record for re~action as pointed out in m y lastarticle, but also w ent to greater lengths than any previous convention toprove~ t hat the Am erican Federation of Labor is an ally of the capitalistc la ss o n th is c on ti ne nt .~

TH E FUTILIT Y O F FOSTER ISM'In, all the forty-tw o years of its existence this organizatiO n has

not m ade a m ore strenuous effort 'to further the idea of the "identity ofinterests" between the workers and the em ployers than w as m ade atPortland.'

,

The first~ w eek of the convention w ent to extraordinary lengths tocreate the im pression that the A. F. of'L . is not only a patriotic bodybut is friendly to the employers as a class. This W aS revealed in every,speech that w as m ade and in the staging of the program m e of specialad dr es se s b y " dis tin gu is hed v is ito rs " th ro ug ho ut th e co nv en tio n.~Starting w ith the usual addresses of w elcom e by the M ayor of Port-land, a notorious anti-labor politician of the type of ex-M ayor O le H anson,of Seattle, and the G overnor of the State of Oregon, the addresses m ade ~~to the ~convention wereall m arked by thir em phasis of~ the point that theinterests of m aster and slave are "identical." -T he G ov ~e rn or o f O re go n, e mp ha si ze d~ i t, G om pe rs s ec on de d' it a ndeven H odges of th e B ritish M iners, w ho w as o nce a Socialist, revealed it insp ee ch es. T he n, to stren gth en the im pression th ey pu t on th e p la tfo rm ~ ~a~ W elf ar e w or ker , th re e c ler gy me n, a n A mer ic an L eg io n co mm an der ,a nda General of the U.S. Arm y, besides the reading of a telegram fromSecretary of Labor Davis and the delivering of a m essage, through Gom -

~ 'p ers, fro m P re sid ent C alvin C oolid ge , w hose b erth in the W hite H ou seis the rew ard o f his services against labor in the state of,M assach usetts.~B ER RY B ET RA Y A L F EA TU RE D'

, O ne o f th e sp ec ia l fe ature s of th e first w ee k w as ,th e sp ee ch m ad e b yM ajo r G eo rg e L . B erry , In te rn atio nal P re sid en t o f th e P rin tin g P re ss men 'sUnion, in w hich he told how he had broken the strike of the w eb pressm enagainst the newspapers of N ew York City, by filling the places of thestriking pressm en w ith union pressm en from ather cities.This open flaunting of the activities of a, union' scab-herder, andn oto rio us ly co rru pto ffic ial, w as ap pla ud ed to th e ec ho . b y th e~ co nv en tio n.The charge m ade by D unne, the lone Com m unist delegate, who was

. e xp el le d fro m th e c on ve nti on , t ha t th e c on ve ntio n w as try in g to . take am ore conservative position than the capitalists th em selves, w as fully jus-tified by th e utteran ces of the various delegates and their~ actio n upon alIIm atter s ~ th at ca me b ef ore th e co nv en tio n.No t ~ a single th ing was done by the convention from ,start to finishthat could possibly be interpreted as h ostile to the em ployers.In view of that I m arvel at the suggestion m ade to m e by D unnethat the organized em ployers of Am erica m ay yet com pletely destroy theA . F. of L . Instead of any such possibility it seem s to m e quite logicaland certain that the em ployers will PRESERVE the A . F. of ,L. just aslong as they can and I'm sure that if there w eer any danger of it dying

out entirely they w ould spend m illions to 'keep it alive.In all its important sections, it is functioning today as a "com panyunion" and the attitude~~of ,all honest unionists tow ard it should be thesam e as that taken against all other "com pany unions."In M ontreal in 1920 there w as still som e pretense of div ision m adeon the surface ofthings between such elem ents in the Federation as the


13/15

26 ~ THE FUTIL ITY OF FOSTER ISM THE FU TILITY OF FOSTERISM 27M iners and the C arpenters, but today there is no longer any such pretense.~, John L . Lewis stood solidly with Gom pers and with Hutcheson of theC arpen ters on ~ every proposition before the co nvention. T here~ was abso- ~lute harm ony among all the International officials upon every m atter ofpolicy. ~

tants from the A. F. of L. convention. W hen Dunne was expelled thelast Foster cham pion who dared to take the floor at Portland was thrownoutoftheA.F.ofL. ' ~ ~I read in the O ctober Labor H erald that "sluggings, disfranchise-m ents, expulsions, splits," hav e been th e harvest reaped by the ''borin g~from ~within" policy so far and this was fully reflected in the A. F. of L .convention. The crop of "am algam ation resolutions" that have beenpassed by international organizations and central labor cou ncils and localunions proved to be worth less 'than the paper they were written on.T he c on ve ntio n re ve ale d th e F oste r su ppo rt to b e so p itia bly w eak~ that after D unne w as expelled there w as not one delegate in Portlandw ith guts enough to take the floor and speak in favor of any kind of ." am a lg am a ti on " r es ol ut io n.In spite 'of the trem endous ,am ount of propaganda spread by Foster'in the last three years the A. F. of L . has weakened more than in anythree years in its history and m ore significant than that the m ilitancywithin the A . F. of L. has DECREASED m ore than ever in its history.

N O M O RE " PR OG RE SS IV ES "T he m ine w orkers' delegation 'w ith its m ore than four thousand votes

in the convention had often in the past opposed the G om pers' m ac~h ine, butat Portland the m ine workers led the m achine in all its efforts t,o keep the~ F ed er atio n - co ns er va tiv e.~' T his w as m erely a~ reflection of the fact that in m any parts of thecontinent during the last ~year the U nited M ine W orkers has proven to bethe m ost thorough-going "com pany union" on the continent. The minersof N ova S cotia, A lberta, O hio, K ansas, and the P ittsburg and anthracitedistricts can testify to that fact. In all these places, the Lew is' officialm achine has openly served the interests of the m ine operators and tocap the clim ax of treachery, the official journal of the U.M .W . of A.,entirely controlled by L ew is an d G reen, published a series of articles thatm ay yet have the effect of delivering the m iners of Herrin, Ill., .whoexecuted a few scabs that had murdered som e striking m iners, up to thehangm an. These articles were written after a jury in Illinois had fully

exonerated the H errin m iners and acquitted them ' w hen the m ine ownersattem pted to have them hanged for m urder.'Lew is, in a speech to the convention told how he had crushed theO.B .U . am ong the m iners in C anada and declared that the C anadian' dis-tricts had been re-organized and w ere now 100% loyal to the U.M .W . of A.This in spite of the fact that at the very tim e' he w as talking, the NovaScotia m iners were calling a district conference in Halifax to considerwhat action the district could take against the attem pt of Lewis to re-organize the district so as to regain contro l of it, while in the A lbertadistrict only three weeks before it had been found necessary for Lewisto revoke seven local charters of rebellious locals that he w as claim ingwere 100% loyal to him . ~In the three years between the M ontreal convention and this one atPo rtland the so-called "progressives" h ave been alm ost entirely elim in-

ated from the A. F . of L . - ~'I looked through the list of delegates in vain for many old-tim eopponents of the Gom pers' m achine. They were conspicuous by theirabsence.I looked for som e evidence that the claim s of great headway m ade bythe follow ers of Foster in the various international unions w ould bedem onstrated by the presence of "am algam ationists" and supporters of~the Foster m o'vement at the convention. They were ~also conspicuous byt he ir a bs en ce . '

~ T he c on ve nt io n ~ fully revealed the weakness and futility of theFoster program me. The net results of three-years ofstrenuous effort bythe Foster forces to save the A. F. of L. from decay m ay fairly be show nby the loss of about a m illion mem bers and the elim ination of the m ili-

W ILL RANK A ND FILE A WAKEN ?In view of these incontestable facts there is but one sane course forall m ilitants in the labor unions on this continent to pursue and that is to

frankly adm it that the "am algam ation idea" w ill not work and, as allpragm atists do when they discover a thing will not work, discard it andset about the building of a real labor movem ent in Am erica.Had this been done three years ago instead of following the Foster"will-o-the-w isp" such a m ovem ent would already 'be well under way inAm erica. The hundreds of thousands that are leaving the A . F. of L.every year w ould then have som ething else to go to and it would nottake very long to build an A merican labor m ovem ent that w ould com mandthe respect of the w orld." .The O ne Big U nion inC anadatook that course and have successfullyresisted all efforts'to destroy~ it. T he L aw rence w orkers took that coursearid have demonstrated their ability to function through the O.BU. inthe fight against the mill-ow ners, not only w inning ground for them-selves, but for hundreds of thousands of unorganized workers in the tex-tile tow ns as w ell.These workers of W estern Canada and New England have laid thefoundation for the new m ovem ent. The I.W .W . in the western part of theU nited States and on the seas and im portant ports throughout the worldhas survived and should be a part of that m ovem ent. Scores of so-called"independent" unions in various localities and districts also have agenuine desire to serve the working class and should be a par-t. of thatm ovement; but there is not a vestige of hope that any of the existinginternational unions com posing the A. F. of L. can ever be changed orcaptured or controlled by anyone but the em ployers and so it becom es asheer waste of energy to stay with in those organizations and try to pre-vent their decay, while fighting for the passage of em pty resolutionsendorsing things that the Am erican Federation -of Labor w ill nevers tan d fo r.


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28 ~ ~THE FUTILIT Y OF FO ST ER ISMTH E FALL OF FO STER

W h e n I a tt en de d ~ th e M o n tr ea l c on ve nt io n i n 1 92 0, F os te r w a s i n h ig hfav or around the conventio n hall. H e w as a conspicuous figure around thelobby and am ong the groups of delegates. I m et him in the lobby afterthe roll call vote on the Plum b Plan resolution showed that G om pers hadbeen defeated by a com bination of the M iners' and the Railroad U nionsand Foster said to m e in great g lee,.~ ''Y ou see what we're doing? W e'veput the skids under the 'old m an' (m eaning G om pers)."That was three years ago and~the only result of the "skids" put underG om pers by Foster and his friends has been to slide the "old m an" intoa sa fe r p ositio n tha n e ve r b efore in ~ on tro l of th e A . F . o f L . ~'On the other hand the Portland convention revealed the extent ofFoster's "fall from grace." He w as advertised to visit Portland duringthe convention, but for som e reason he failed to appear and his speakingdates w ere filled by "B ill" D un ne. H ad he appeared , how ever, it is certainthat he would not have been favored with the attention he got at M ontrealand. he w ould probably have found less than half a dozen delegates in theconventio n-w ith courage enough to be seen in public w ith him .W e also heard the story upon the convention floor of how the C hicagoFederation of Labor, 'to which he has always pointed w ith pride as a"progressive" central organization, resulting from the effectiveness ofhis "boring ,'~ has now com pletely repudiated him and led by his old,friends, Fitzpatrick and N ockels, g one over com pletely to~ t he G om pers'machine. .D uring the steel strike Foster told m e one day in Pittsburg that~"Gom pers was not so Bad" and that he was "m erely a reflection of them ental attitude of the rank, and file~ in the A. F. of L., and alw ays hadbeen." That was his justification at that tim e for working with the laborfakir of the A. F. of L., and if Foster was right this convention ~show sthat years of "am algam ation" propaganda has made the rank and file ofthe A. F. of L. m ore re-actionary and hopelesS- than ever in its history.The truth is, however, that Foster was wrong then in his analysisof Gom pers and is w rong now in his analysis of ~the Am erican labor m ove-~ m ent. Gom pers has never represented anything except the mental atti-tude of the em ployers that have always dictated the policies -of the

A . F. of L . and taken good care that its structure will m ake it foreverim possib le for the "rank and file" of w orkers, that have been m isled into~jo in in g its v ar io us " in ter natio na l u nio ns ," to ex pr es s th em se lv es.A R OM ANTIC R USSIAN PIC TUR E

In'F oster's "L abor H erald" fo r O ctober I find the follow in g repo rt of "a speech delivered by Losovsky, the head of the Red International orLabor Unions, to the first session of the Enlarged Executive of that~body:"In the United States the work oft the R.I.L.U. has assum ed a',m ass character. W e are faced w ith a large m ovem ent headed by the~Trade Union Educational League. Born only a couple of years ago,.this League has m ade trem endous progress. It is successfully batt-~ling against the theory and tactics of dual unionism , Le, 'Of splitting:

TH E FUT ILITY O F FO STE RISM 29the trade union organizations, no m atter w hat the cost. For thefirst tim e in the labor m ovem ent of A m erica, a revolutionary winghas assum ed real im portance. The influence of the League grow ssteadily. It is now influencin g, id eologically an d politically, tw o m il-lions of w orkers. This has frightened the reactionary leaders of theA merican~ trade, union m ov em ent, and forced them to carry on a fiercestruggle against the League. The sm all independent revolutionaryunions existing alongside the League are'trying in vain to com petew it h I ts i nf lu en ce .

"Even less capable of rivalling it is the I.W .W ."This favorable situation of the League w ill encourage its lead-ers to do everything 'Possible -from an organizational point of view,in order to~ spread the influence to both the independent unions andthe I.W .W . The struggle against dual unionism does not exclude thep os sib ility o f a gre em en t w ith th e e xis tin g r ev olu tio na ry in de pen de ntunions. The chief problem there isthe further consolidation of theLeague, the extension of its influence beyond the A. F. of L., thestruggle for industrial unionism , the creation of Com m ittees ofA ction and the o verth row of the m ost reactionary trade union b ureau-cracy in the w orld. A ll this can be accom plished, provided th e L eaguep ursues the presen t policy tow ards the elem ents standing outside it."I am am azed to think of such utterances coming from Russians, whoare supposed to be realists. In the sixteen years I have been in theL abor m ovem ent I hav e never encountered a m ore w ildly rom antic pictu reof conditions anywhere. Even Foster w as forced to adm it to the T.U.E.L.convention that "this w as a rather rosy picture of the T.U.E.L ."But he did not have the honesty to adm it that this extravagant anddistorted idea of conditions on this continent has been given to the R us-sian leaders by the utterly false and m isleading reports that have beensteadily poured into Russia by all the organs on this continent that aresupporting the Foster program m e and by all the leading advocates of

that program m e, everyone of w hom know s w ell, how far from the truthis the descrip tion of the A merican situation given by Losovsky.W hen one reads such fulsom e praise of the T.U.E.L. and such anextravagant picture~ of the prospects for Fosterism within the A. F. of L.as painted by Losovsky and contrasts it w ith the cold reality, one isforced to conclude that all the R ussian leaders are certainly not realistsand that the R .I.L .U . needs a m ore rationalistic sort of m ind to interpretconditions in other countries th an that revealed by L osovsky.

T he U np ro mis in g R ea lityThe ''trem endous progress" of the T.U.E .L . has been ,like that of acrab . It w as very w ell displayed in the Portland convention of the A . F.of L .; but lest som e


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30 TH E FUTILIT Y OF FOSTE RISM T HE FU TILITY OF FOSTER ISM 31w hich there were about three hundred people and most of them were N OTtrade unionists but young boys and girls from the ranks of what was oncethe "Y ipsels" of the old So cialist P arty.In Canada, from w hich glowing reports com e, signed by one TimBuck, I found no evidence that there is any life left in the Foster m ove-m ent at all, though tw o years ago it m ade strenuous effort, backed up bythe M anitoba Em ployers' Association, the Canadian governm ent, theCanadian Pacific Railroad and various other agencies, to destroy theO ne B ig Union and failed dism ally. In all of the places that I have spokenin Canada and challenged the position of the Fosterites, I did not find asingle advocate of the T.U.E.L. w ho would ask m e a question or dare toenter into any discussion o f their tactics.T he dam ag e do ne in' C anada by the Fo ster propaganda has u ndoubted-ly hurt the working class m ovem ent in that country from Coast to Coastand particularly in the N ova Scotia district; but the O.B .U. has survivedthe flood of Foster propaganda as w ell as the attacks of the em ployersand the industrial depression and rem ains the only thing in C anada thatoffers any hope to the w orking class.

m ovem ent than at any point I've visited on the C oast. And this is anotherpoint from which glow ing and exaggerated reports are sent in to Fosterb y h is r om an ti c~ l oc al l ie ut en an t. ~T he T .U .E .L . has not only failed to influence "tw o m illio ns" of A meri-can workers but it has failed to influence even a sm all m inority of them ilitants in the Am erican labor ,m ovem ent. Those m ilitants will not goback to the A . F. of L. and those that still rem ain in the A . F. of L. are~ b ein g th row n o ut so ra pidly th at th e re st sh ou ld p rofit b y the lesso n a ndleave the sinking ship. If all these elem ents, 'instead of wasting tim eand energy, fo llow ing F'oster, w ould then set about building a real laborm ovem ent in Am erica on the foundation laid by the O ne B ig Union therewould soon be som ething really hopeful to report to the rest of theworld and L osovsky w ould not have to 'strain his im agination so terribly

~~ in p ic tu rin g t he c on di tio ns o f th e la bo r m ov em en t in A m eri ca .The final tru th about the T.U.E.L . is that it really am ounts tonothing m ore in Am erica than a fairly efficient m achine for sustainingthe circulation of F oster's" m onthly, "T he' L abor H erald."T .U .E .L . T AC TI CS F AIL

I m et one T.U.E.L. organizer in C algary addressing a m eeting of the"m ilitants" of Calgary. W hen I arrived at the m eeting place w ith acouple of O.B .U . m em bers I found five "m ilitants" including another of~our O .B .U. m em bers and the speaker, Bartholom ew. No effort was m adeat all by Bartholom ew to refute any of m y argum ents against theT.U.E.L. policy and "Bart" afterward tried to convince m e that he w asreally "boring-from -w ithin" in the interest of the O .B .U., but in view ofthe m alicious attacks that have been m ade upon the O.B.U., using thesam e pro paganda against it as used by the M anitoba E mployers' A ssocia-tion, it is not easy to believe in the sincerity of the alibi.O n the Pacific C oast, around V ancouver, the followers of Foster didsucceed in breaking up the O .B.U.; though a share of the credit for thatachievem ent should be given to the agents of the N orth W est M ountedPolice working "undercover," in the regular report to M oscow; and Lo-sovsky should also be inform ed that after breaking up the O.B.U. theydid not succeed in getting the slaves back into the A. F. of L., so the net

result of the T .U .E.L. cam paign in that sector has been the destructionof all w orking class organization and the consequent discouragem ent ofthe workers. The rem aining vestiges of the A. F. of L. on the Vancouverwaterfront is now in process of being destroyed by a typical A . F. of L .s tr ik e u nd er T .U .E .L . l ea de rs hi p.I looked in vain for evidences of Foster's "great m ovem ent" inS eattle; and in P ortlan d the "w ob blies'" contributed m ost of the au diencegathered to hear Dunne and they were interested only in ~D unne's attackupon the A . F. of L. and not at all in the policy of try ing to "craw l in theback door" after being kicked out of the A. F. of L.~ Here, in San Francisco, where th is article is being w ritten, I have

~ n ot y et d is co ver ed th e T .U .E .L ., th ou gh I've found healthier o ppositio n tothat futile policy and m ore prom ising prospects for a real O ne B ig U nion

Futility of Fosterism

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