G Berry Betrays New York Pressmen OMPERS has been outgompered! La bor's most distinguished parasite no longer holds the record for sudden excommunication of protesting local unions. Major Berry, President of the International Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union is the new champion excommunicator. The Major (swivel chair brigade) figuratively cut the throats of two thousand, five hundred striking pressmen of the New York local and did it while lolling in his silk pajamas on a luxuriant bed in the exclusive Waldorf-Astoria. Three o'clock in the morning! Goaded to desperation by eighteen months of slavery, filthy pressrooms, two, and sometimes three stories underground in unventilated holes, for longer hours than Gary steel workers endured, the pressmen came up for air at the expiration of the infamous Manton Award, rendered in March, 1922. A brief outline of the Manton Award is as follows. Federal Judge Martin T. Man ton was chosen as arbitrator by an agreement entered into secretly by Major Berry and the publishers in 1921 whereby all questions in dispute were to be submitted to one not engaged in publishing or printing. In this Award the judge ruled against the Pressmen in every contested point. The hours of the night shift were increased ten hours per week. Day work was increased 3 hours per week. The employer alone was given the right to dictate the number of men on presses. This automatically reduced the pressmen's pay and made them subject to call for work any time night or day the employer demanded. That's that. The sweltering pressmen looked forward to the expiration of the Award and better HERE'S A BERRY STRIKE UNIONIZING, A LA A. F. OF L. But ment of the intolerable conditions. The the scene the publishers have ignored the With the loyalty of Berry the strike would have been won in twenty-four hours. But Berry assured the publishers that Philadelphia pressmen would willingly scab on their New York brothers. As yet no great number of Quakers have shown a willingness to do anything of the kind. Information at local pressmen's headquarters disclosed a Berry scheme that staggers belief. Professional strike breakers were issued cards at the emergency employment bureaus of the International. On Sunday, Sept. 1, 1923, Berry called a meeting for the purpose of addressing the men on a new contract that he had signed with the publishers. His first act was to have Local President Dave Simons and local committeemen thrown out bodily by policemen. For thirty years the New York pressmen have adjusted their differences with the publishers as the differences arose. Thirty years without a strike when the men met the publishers man to man. Today they are the victims of Berryism, the natural product of official rule and trades division in labor unionism. Under the new contract, again entered into with the publishers by Kaiser Berry, the pressmen, will have a paltry increase in pay, but the old conditions of absolute dictatorship will still prevail in favor of the employer. Yet the strike was not wholly lost, for two thousand five hundred pressmen are awakened to the true meaning of Industrial Solidarity as exemplified in the Industrial Workers of the World. M. J. C. E Another Shameful Alliance VERYWHERE the workers turn they behold the alliance of capitalists and labor leaders against progressive unionism. This time it is the Brockton Shoe Manufacturers' Association and Baine of the Boot and Shoe Workers who have united to prevent working class development in organization and to perpetuate capitalism by so doing. They have succeeded in defeating the latest revolt against them. Some day, perhaps, a revolt will come with such completeness as to overwhelm them; who knows? The latest news regarding this nefarious alliance is contained in the following item from a Boston paper: "Brockton Shoe Workers Fight Boss and 'Union' "Eight days after the calling-off of the strike, the Brockton District Shoe Workers' Union held a meeting in Eagle Hall. It was attended by 700 members, many of whom had returned to work and rendered reports as to the fines to which they had been subjected for rebellion against the 'Boot and Shoe.' The business of the meeting was confined to a discussion of this angle of the case, and the manufacturers were scathingly denounced for collecting fines from their employes to hand over to the union. Several stated that they had been re-employed after paying the regulation reinstatement fee of $4.25, but were obliged to sign cards giving the employing firms the right to deduct $2 a week from their earnings until Mr. Baine, secretary of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, got all that was coming to him. The idea of the manufacturers collecting the fines raised a howl of indignation, and furnished the 'last word' in absolute proof of what might be properly called a live and active conspiracy between the Manufacturers' Association and the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union to 'fleece' the men and women who make shoes in this city." This item should cause renewed activity in behalf of industrial unionism, for it is only by an increased understanding of industrial union principles, on the part of a greater number of workers, that the capitalist-labor leader alliance will be overthrown. EXTRA! EXTRA! December number of Industrial Pioneer will be a 64-page Christmas Amnesty Special. Same price! ORDER NOW! ORDER NOW! T Social Conditions in South By J. W. LEIGH HOSE who are fortunate enough to claim the North, East or West as their homes, do not realize conditions under which Southern Labor, both white and colored, live and have their being; for, if the truth were told, the nation would rise and demand that those guilty pay the penalty before the bar of justice. Florida, with its swamps and everglades, its convict camps, in which human beings, slender youths who, lured to this "land of sunshine and flowers" by the glaring advertisements of the various chambers of commerce, are flogged to death on account of their inability to produce more profits for the lumber companies, controlled in many instances by members of the state legislature, is a festering sore on the body politics and union legislation should be enacted to stop the outrages practiced on the unfortunates by the labor exploiters of that state. Florida Open Shop Florida is an open shop state, and labor unions exist in name only. Jacksonville and Tampa are literal hells in practically all industries, and woe betide the union man who has principle enough to stand up for his rights. Craft unionism, with its spies and scabs within its ranks, will soon deplete what little unionism there is in the state. Wages are low, averaging in the mills $1 a day, and in various other industries fifty per cent lower than that paid in other sections of the country. This can be explained: many tourists visit that state, and becoming "stranded" by the high prices are obliged to accept any salary in order to again return to their native state. This is the alternativeaccept what we give you or go to jail for vagrancy. In Ku Kluxers' Home Georgia, the home of the Ku Klux, turpentine camps and cotton, is claiming a shortage of labor, and according to the reports many are the deserted farms on which not even a negro tenant will reside; wages, low prices paid, is the true cause of the migration. A movement is on foot to replace the negroes with white families from the povertystricken holes of Europe, but up to the present time this ambition has not been realized as starvation with a government behind them is better than slavery in the southern states of America. Carolinas Vie with Hell The Carolinas are in the same condition, and the turpentine camps, manned by convicts, present a picture that would vie with hell itself for punishment. Beaten, kicked, starved, in order that the wives, daughters and concubines of the men of wealth may have the luxuries, pleasures, and all of this world at their command, the life of the turpentine worker cannot be conceived by those who have not visited this section of the United States. Alabama, with its notorious convict leasing system, in which the state allows the unfortunates to THE LURE be worked in mines, insanitary to the highest degree, faces a legislative inquiry as to the mutiny in the mines near Birmingham, in which, it is said, that more than a score of convicts who refused to work until better food was provided, were beaten into insensibility by brutal guards. New Orleans Storm Center Louisiana, as usual, is occupying the front pages of the prostituted press this month with one of the largest strikes in the history of the South. Seven thousand workers on the river front are out, and have been joined by many more at Mobile and Gulfport, in a demand for a shorter work day, and an advance in wages. This is refused on the ground that the interests cannot afford to pay the increase in competition with other ports. However, the steamship Minnesota has been fitted up with accommodations for seven hundred in which scabs are herded like cattle, and all that goes in the way of food and pleasure contributed free, in addition to a higher rate of wage than that demanded by the union longshoremen and screwmen. The city of New Orleans during the latter part of September presented the appearance of an armed camp. Police with riot guns patroled the principal streets day and night; at the head of Canal street two armored automobiles loaded with machine guns stood ready to mow down the workingman who asked for the privilege of existence and the right to educate and care for his loved ones. Fully one hundred extra police officers were engaged for this affair, and the hours of service leng thened to twelve instead of eight without extra compensation; union men scabbed against each other; brothers, both blood and fraternal, were arrayed on opposite sides while spies swarmed the meetings at the various union halls—all for the paltry dollar to keep the breath of life in their worthless carcasses. The workingman will pay for this in increased exploitation as the rich swear off their just indebtedness to the state. And all this and more too, in order to make New Orleans the banner open shop city of the United States. Bosses' Economic Action Industries are closing down, many for the purpose of supplying men for the scab herders who would wreck the human family. The American Sugar Refinery last month laid off many of its men -not those without any responsibilities, but deliberately selected men with large families dependent on them, and those who were buying homes through various building and loan associations, in order that they might be forced to scab on their fellow man in order to save what little they had paid for a haven for their old age. Not long ago a publicity campaign was put on with the slogan, "Own your own home," in which workingmen were practically forced to purchase property in order to secure a place to live; backed by the real estate agents, owners refused to rent; and, as a consequence, many thousands bought property at an advance of 100 per cent over its real value. This was done in order to hold them in case of labor trouble. Jim Crowism Condemned To the southerner, a colored man is a nigger, a beast of burden and one to be exploited; the Jim Crow law (segregation) is enforced in places of amusement, on street cars, and on the railroads; but, judging from the number of "negroes" with white blood in their veins, the Jim Crow law is lost sight of when passion rules his mind. Formerly it was a crime to teach a negro to read and write; now all is changed, and the rascally southerner is using the negro's education to bring him back to a state of slavery-industrial this time, if you please. In the city of New Orleans is located a publication office which prints and circulates a monthly magazine sent free to all mill operatives in the South, counseling moderation and "sticking to the boss" who provides a place where you may earn your livelihood. Mill owners from Texas to Florida subscribe for their employes and this is mailed monthly in the hope of destroying unionism. The publisher of this magazine at one time was an organizer for the American Federation of Labor, later a member of the I. W. W., a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and is now publishing a weekly newspaper booming a Roman Catholic candidate for governor-such is the versatility of the average southerner. King Herod, of old; Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pi late, Nero, and Benedict Arnold all can wear the white robes of purity and sit on the right hand, etc., when their deeds are compared to the southern open shopper who controls press, pulpit and schools of that section of the "land of freedom" which seceded from the central government in 1860-65, and whose ancestors today are roasting in hell for their endeavor to maintain human chattel slavery. The forefathers of the present generation sought only to enslave the black man-today all who labor for an existence are included. Truly can it be said to the worker of the South, "Unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains." NEGRO MIGRATION COSTLY Sherman's march to the sea cost Georgia no more than the loss that state is suffering from the migration of her Negro population, according to the Georgia Bankers' Association. The state is threatened with a loss of wealth amounting to $27,000,000 this year. It has 46,674 vacant farm houses, 55,524 idle plows, and a labor shortage of 70,8434 persons. I INDIA GETS IWW BANK VIEWS NDUSTRIAL Review for India," "for promoting India's industrial development and foreign trade relations," is published in English in Berlin, Germany. lin, Germany. In its September issue, under Review of the Press, it treats of "Workers' Bankstwo viewpoints." The first view is that of conservative German bankers. The second is that of the IWW, as expressed by Industrial Pioneer in the article "Labor Turns to Banking," by Alois Sennefelder, Jr. This article is reprinted in its entirety, and is credited to "the August issue of the Industrial Pioneer, a new magazine issued from 1001 West Madison St., Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A., an official organ of the Industrial Workers of the World, an industrial unionist organization in that country." advertisement, say we!! BUILDING WORKERS GROWING A Some SMALL number of building construction workers met in Chicago in July, 1920. They received a branch charter as the Chicago Branch Building Construction Workers' Industrial Union No. 330, in August of the same year. Since that time, branch charters have been issued to Omaha, Sioux City, New York, Minneapolis, Jersey City, Detroit, Milwaukee, Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland and another in Chicago; twelve in all. In this way, "330" has grown into one of the most important industrial unions within the IWW. The monthly increase in membership in all branches is going on steadily. Calls are coming in for literature and information. A handbook on the Building Industry is being printed. Address orders to Building Construction Workers' Industrial Union No. 330, 1001 W. Madison St., Chicago, IL T FORREST EDWARDS OPENS MEETING Minneapolis' Big Amnesty Meetings By FORREST EDWARDS HE enthusiasm with which the working people of Minneapolis answered the call of the General Defense Committee for an Amnesty meeting at Gate-Way Park, Sunday, Oct. 7th, may be fairly judged by the photos taken of those meetings. Should we estimate the size of the audience as being 1,000 there would be many to tell us that our estimate was by far too small. So then, we submit the photos and leave the reader to judge for himself, as to the size of the assembled crowd. Resolutions of protest against the furher imprisonment of Political Prisoners were passed with a deafening roar and the chairman promptly sent them on to the President. The speakers urged every one to work, not merely for the release of the men in prison, but for a full and complete amnesty. Nothing less will satisfy the working class, nor will it meet the issue raised by the imprisonment of men for "the mere expression of opinion." There were two meetings held that day; one at 2 P. M. and the other at 7. The afternoon meeting was a large one and its success from every angle compelled, even the most optimistic of the Committee, to feel like pessimists when their previous estimates were compared with the general results. But the evening meeting was equally as large if not larger, than the afternoon meeting. Anyway, there is no doubt in the minds of the workers here, about the injustice of keeping men in prison; a prison that is a burning hell; for the "mere expression of opinion." That something must be done about it is certain. That the best way to help get the men out of prison is to support the General Defense Commitee in its "Amnesty by Christmas" campaign, was proven by the very generous collections made up at these meetings for that purpose. |