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CIO in Detroit Urges National Workers of the World, Unite ! FORD STRIKE AND THE “ FOURTH WAGE ROUND” By Bert Cochran — See Page 2 — t h e MILITANT PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE Vol. X III - No. 21 217 NEW YORK, N. Y., MONDAY, MAY 23, 1949 PRICE: FIVE CENTS Ford Maneuvers CIO in Detroit Fail to Shake Strike Solidarity Urges National D E T R O IT — Thousands of Ford workers are maintain­ ing their 24-hour picket line around the huge Rouge plant in Dearborn as the strike against speedup comes to the end of its^ second week. Bendix strikers in • > ---------------------------------;----------------- South Bend, Ind., Chevrolet work­ guarantee assembly line produc­ ers in Flint who have voted for tion at a constant speed geared ‘Labor Holiday’ the second time in a year to to “normal work practices” and strike against speedup, workers not require workers to make up in every UAW plant in the coun­ production lost through power try are anxiously watching de­ failures, parts shortages, etc. Oil, Ship Unions Calls for 24-Hour Stoppage velopments in the Ford strike, COMPANY’S ANSWER which can have a decisive effect on the outcome of “fourth wage The company responded by an­ Ask Shorter Week To Win Taft-Hartley Repeal round” negotiations this year. nouncing the firing of seven more The latest “peace formula” of UAW officials on charges they the UAW international team of had “invaded” the company’s of­ With Same Pay DETROIT, May 17 — The Greater Detroit an& negotiators headed by W alter fices to intimidate salaried em­ Wayne County CIO Council at its meeting tonight ployees into leaving their jobs on Calling upon all labor organiza­ Reuther has been rejected by the tions to join in a drive for a Ford Motor Company. This pro­ the day the strike began, This adopted a resolution ealling for a 24-hour Labor shorter work week to combat lay­ posal asked that the company was in addition to 14 other UAW Holiday as the best means of offs and unemployment, the CIO members fired last week, and 14 securing repeal of the Taft- Charging that the “months; Oil Workers International Unior suspended. Ilariley Act. since the election have shown?, has announced that it will sec! Ford himself issued a state­ ' The resolution also urged the only too well that Congress in*' ment claiming tljat it was a “po­ u 36-hour week in the oil industry Pennsylvania CIO lolding of a special session ol tcifris to deliver none of its elec-, litical strike" — an obvious ef­ with no reduction in take-home “ Trenton Six” Congress for this summer to act (ion promises,” the resolution fort to throw a smokescreen over PAID FBI ST00LPI6E0HS pay. •n civil rights legislation and all calls on the UAW International ConventionCheers the real issue, the speedup. The Like their brothers in prac­ abor anfl social legislation so far Executive Board, heading tho company has also refused to open tically every industry, the O.l Appeal Frame-up neglected. country’s largest industrial unioit;' negotiations on the contract, pen­ Workers are feeling the sharp PARADED AT CP TRIAL To exert pressure for (he to take the lead in urging aJj‘ James Kutcher sion and wage proposals request­ edge of the axe. Many companies passage of this legislation, the unions to join in a “24-hour Labor HARRISBURG, Pa., May 17_ ed by the union. And it has sought By Farrell Dobbs Death Sentence are already curtailing employ­ Council called for a mass con- Holiday.” James Kutcher, legless veteran to split the workers’ ranks by in­ ment, and others rumor of future ..FEDERAL COURTROOM, NEW YORK. May 18 — The The “Trenton Six” — Negroes l'erenicv of labor to convene in The Hudson Local leaders who was discharged from his gov­ viting back to work all of the firings. The OW IU believes that a dreary parade of FBI stoolpigeons and provocateurs called to who were framed up and sen­ Washington simultaneously with voted to send copies of the resq« ernment job because of his mem­ strikers except the 5,000 employ­ return to the pre-war 36-hour tenced to death last year — ask­ the proposed special session of lution to the UAW internatichjai' bership in the Socialist Workers ed in the “B” Building and the testify here at the thought-control trial of the 1 1 Stalinists drags week will keep all its members i ) ----------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ed the New Jersey Supreme Court Congress. board and to all locals of tlie Party, was the first afternoon Lincoln-Mercury plant. on and on. In every case their employed. The Rouge workers do not fa­ on May 16 to reverse the convic­ [The call for a special session UAW . It concluded by urging- guest speaker at today’s opening testimony bears, the stamp of the To make themselves look like Before World War II, the 36- vor the further application of tions. of Congress parallels the pro­ “all local unions of organized session of the three-day Penn­ police mind, the trade mark of loyal members, these informers lour week had been won in the Reuther’s one-at-a-time strategy Lawyers for the defense, re­ posal made by the New York labor to adopt similar resolu­ sylvania State CIO Convention in J. Edgar Hoover. reciuite.d people into the CP, in­ oil industry. Under pressure of — that is, his insistence that presenting the Civil Rights Con- , tions.” this city. When asked the simplest poli­ cluding relatives and friends, and ’.he war, it was stretched to 48 branch o( the NAACP last month the speedup issue be restricted to gress. the NAACP and other which will be acted on by the Stress was placed in the resolu­ Twelve hundred delegates, fill-' tical questions, their replies are then squealed on the poor devils hours. Today the standard is 40 the “B” Building. It is this rank- organizations, presented a variety tions on the ineffective methods ing the Chestnut Auditorium, vague and confused, revealing in ' their secret reports to the hours, with a much greater national NAACP conference in and-file sentiment which is re­ of arguments showing that the tame to complete silence and at­ downright ignorance of the FBI. They accepted the hospitality Los Angeles in July.] so fa r pursued in pushing labor’s sponsible for the statement made productivity per man-hour than ABC’s of politics. But they of -the -homes, and broke bread at. convictions were, a g^p§s ipisr Full details of this important legislative program. “'The metho{l. tention when Kutcher began his by Local * 600 President Thomas before the war. remember names, dates, places the tabeles of CP members, all carriage of justice. step by the Detroit CIO, giving a of pressuring Congress by host* quiet, unassuming description of Thompson, who now insists that The statement of the National and a few well-rehearsed phrases the while making notes of every­ The six defendants — Collis lead to the whole labor move­ cards, by visits to your Congress­ h's case. Everyone present dis­ the settlement of the strike must Ptlidy Committee of the OW IU thing that was said so they could English, Ralph Cooper, Horace ment and all the minority groups men, by polite resolutions, by played intense interest, in his include guarantees against speed­ like “violent action” and "sabo­ also points out that in 1948 the report it at clandestine meetings Wilson, McKinley Forest, Janies fighting for the adoption of civil clever speeches has not brought every word and recommendation. up in all Ford buildings, and not tage the war effort.” average oil company “made net with FB I agents. rights measures, will be printed us one step closer to the fulfill­ Jlis 15-minute speech closed merely in thc.“B” Building. Planted in the Communist Party Thorpe and John McKenzie— were profits greater than its entire ment of the goal set for itself- with a simple appeal for support The feeling is also becoming by the FBI, these police spies charged with the murder of an « age bill,” and will “still main­ in next week’s Militant. PAID FOR TREACHERY by labor,” states the resolution^ “not because I am a veteran nor widespread among the members bored in as deeply as they could, elderly junk dealer in Trenton. tain handsome profits” if the For these outrages against CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED “It becomes increasingly evident beeaues I have lost my legs, but as the strike continues that it sneaked copies of letters, minutes, Scores of witnesses at the trial workers win the Same take-home human decency, J. Edgar Hoover’s The campaign for the 24-hour that Congress does not intend t'd because this is a civil rights case might be best to stay out until bulletins and membership lists to proved that all of them had been pay for the shorter week. spies .received expense allowances Labor Holiday was launched last pass . legislation in the interest that will help in the fight for all issues are settled — contract the FBI for photostating, and at elsewhert at the time of the The Committee postponed dis­ from the government to cover week in Detroit by the Executive of the working people of this' anyone unjustly persecuted as I and pension questions as well as every opportunity supplied pic­ crime. cussion on “any demands for in­ party dues, literature, traveling Board of Hudson Local 154, CIO country.” have been.” speedup. This attitude is very tures of CP members to Hoover’s But Prosecutor Mario Volpe creased take-home pay,” but in­ expenses and time lost from their United Automob'le Workers, The benefits promised labor by Before Kutcher had even stop­ realistic, and not merely because political police.
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