Misleaders of labor

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A critique of trade union bureaucrats, especially in the United States of America

Author(s): Foster, William Z.
Edition: 1
Publisher: Trade Union Educational League
Year: 1927

Language: English
Pages: 342
City: Chicago

Preface 9
I A CORRUPTED LABOR LEADERSHIP 17
1. The Role of the Conservative Bureaucracy 17
(a) The Primitive Policy of the Employers; (b) The Employers’ Aim at Union Control.
2. The Right Wing Trade Union Leaders 20
(a) Social Conceptions of the Right Wing; (b) The Program of the Right Wing; (c) The Degeneration of the Right Wing.
3. The Socialists and the Progressives 30
(a) The Surrender of the Socialists; (b) The Rise and Decline of the Progressives.
4. The Leadership’s General Drift to the Right 40
II CLASS COLLABORATION 43
1. Pre-War Class Collaboration 43
(a) The National Civic Federation; (b) The American
Railway Employees’ and Investors’ Association; (c) Participation in Employers’ Organizations; (d) Class Collaboration Union Agreements; (e) The Union Label; (f) The Labor Press.
2. The War Period 53
3. The Rise of American Imperialism 56
4. The Post-War Attack on Labor 58
5. The Great Surrender 60
6. The Basis of the New Orientation 61
(a) Company Unionism; (b) Employee Stock; Ownership.
7. The New Orientation 71
8. Company-Unionizing the Trade Unions 71
(a) The B. and O. Plan; (b) The New Wage Policy.
9. Trade Union Capitalism 82
(a) Labor Banking; (b) Labor Investment Concerns; (c) Trade Union Life Insurance.
10. The Higher Strategy of Labor” 89
III REACTIONARY LABOR POLITICS 96
1. Efforts to Found a Labor Party 97
2. Growth of the Non-Partisan System 99
3. The New Orientation in Politics 102
4. How the Non-Partisan System Works 103
(a) The Appointment Bribery j (b) Some “Friends” of Labor; (c) The Mulhall Exposure; (d) doing the Employers’ Work.
IV BRIBERY AND BETRAYAL IN VARIOUS INDUSTRIES 120
1. The Employers’ Bribery 121
2. The Labor Leaders’ Betrayal 124
3. In the Coal Mining Industry 127
(a) John Mitchell; (b) Miscellaneous Traitors; (c) Frank Farrington; (d) John L. Lewis.
4. On the Railroads 137
(a) Evils of Craft Division; (b) Some Railroad Labor; Reactionaries; (c) The 1922 Debacle.
5. The Metal Trades 144
(a) Steel’s Weak Leadership; (b) The Other Metal Crafts.
6. The Printing Trades 148
(a) George L. Berry; (b) Matthew Woll; (c) James M. Lynch; (d) J. D. Bannon.
7. The Textile Industry 154
8. The Needle Trades 155
9. The Metal Miners 158
10. The Packinghouse Workers 159
V ORGANIZED GRAFT IN THE BUILDING TRADES 162
1. Chicago 163
(a) “Skinny” Madden; (b) Simon O’Donnell; (c) Michael Boyle; (d) Timothy Murphy; (g) Miscellaneous Chicago Types.
2. New York 181
(a) Sam Parks; (b) The 1916 Carpenters’ Strike; (c) Robert P. Brindell.
3. Philadelphia 189
(a) Frank Feeney; (b) James C. Cronin.
4. Cleveland and San Francisco 192
5. The A. F. of L. and Graft 194
VI PLUNDERING THE WORKERS 197
1. Exorbitant Salaries and Expenses 197
(a) Railroad Union Nabobs; (b) Overpaid Miners’ Officials; (c) Building Trades Fakers; (d) In the Printing Trades; (e) In the Needle Trades; (f) Miscellaneous Instances.
2. Variegated Thievery 204
(a) Strike, Organization and Legal Expenses; (b) Working Permits, Initiation Fees and Death Benefits.
3. Misusing Union Funds 210
(a) The Pressmen’s Home; (b) The Fitzgerald Case; (c) The Barker Case.
4. Labor Temple Swindles 215
5. The Union Label Graft 218 v
6. Exploiting the Labor Banks 219
VII TRADE UNION CAPITALISM SWINDLE 221
1. A Rude Awakening 222
2. The Morning After 223
3. A Survey of the Wreckage 224
4. Graft 229
5. Extravagance 232
6. Chicanery 233
7. Autocracy 236
8. Some “Saviours” Appear 237
(a) The Mitten Plan; (b) The Newcomb Plan.
9. Paying the Piper 241
10. Punishing the Guilty 243
11. A Few Useful Lessons 245
VIII TAINTED LABOR JOURNALISM 248
1. National Labor Papers 249
2. Local Labor Papers 251
(a) Pittsburgh’s Graft Sheets; (b) Miscellaneous Bogus Labor Papers.
3. Year Books, Directories, Souvenirs 264
4. The Socialist Press 267
IX AUTOCRATIC CONTROL OF THE UNIONS 271
1. Bourgeois Labor Leaders 271
2. The Appeal to Craft Selfishness 275
3. Help From the Employers 278
4. Help From the State 282
5. Suppression of Union Democracy 286
(a) Reactionary Machines for Control; (b) Devitalizing the Conventions; (c) Stealing Elections; (d) Violation of Mandates; (e) Abolition of Free Press; (f) Disfranchisement and Expulsion; (g) Terrorism.
X WHAT MUST BE DONE 306
1. The Fight Against American Imperialism 306
2. The Left Wing and the Progressives 309
3. Semi-Skilled and Unskilled 313
4. Elementary Tasks in Building the Unions 316
(a) Organization of the Unorganized; (b) Concentration of Union Forces—Amalgamation; (c) Democratization of the Unions.
5. The Fight Against Class Collaboration 324
(a) For the Labor Party; (b) Against Company Unionism; (c) Class Collaboration in Finance.
6. The Perspective 334