An important document in the history of the United Mine Workers and progressive unionism in the United States as the crisis in the U.M.W.A. come to a head.

‘Save-the-Miners’ Union Call’ from The Communist. Vol. 7 No. 3. March, 1928.

[The Communist prints below a document that promises to be of historic significance to the American labor movement. It is a call issued to the 800,000 coal miners of America by the Save the Union Committee, convoking a national conference to be held in Pittsburgh on April 1st. Addressed to organized and unorganized miners alike, it aims to rally the whole industry to defeat the attacks of mine operators, their governmental agencies, and their tools in the U.M.W.A. The April 1st Conference called in the battle center of the coal war will in large measure determine the fate, not only of the miners union but of the entire organized labor movement of which it forms the backbone. Editor.]

Pittsburgh, March 1, 1928.

GREETINGS:

To all local unions and members of the United Mine Workers of America and the miners of the unorganized districts:

The National “Save the Union Committee” will hold a great national conference of coal miners in Pittsburgh on April first. The purpose of this conference will be to work out a program to meet the deep crisis which has been brought upon the union by the incompetence and corruption of the Lewis administration. The conference will take definite steps for winning the Pennsylvania-Ohio strike, to defeat the nation-wide attacks of the operators and their government agencies upon the union and the wages and working standards of the miners, to oust the Lewis machine and to place the union in the hands of the miners, to abolish corruption in the union and make it into an invincible weapon of the 800,000 coal miners, to lay plans for the organization of the great masses of unorganized miners so shamefully neglected by the Lewis henchmen.

This conference is held pursuant to resolutions unanimously adopted by the big “Save the Union” conferences in Districts 5, 6, 12 and the anthracite tri-districts, which represent the sentiment of these conferences. Spontaneous movements of the mass of miners have enormously strengthened the strike and show that the workers are inspired at the prospect of a real struggle in defense of their interests. You are urged to send delegate to this vital conference which will initiate a determined fight to save our organization and living standards.

BOSSES’ ANTI-UNION DRIVE.

The United Mine Workers is in the most serious crisis in its history. The coal operators, assisted by the courts and police, are attacking it on all fronts. The Lewis administration through its reactionary policies, has made no real defense, consequently district after district has been lost. Now the operators are trying to break the backbone of the union by destroying Districts 2, 5 and 6 in the present strike. They are using all methods from federal and state injunctions to evictions of our members and their families and the most brutal attacks upon us by the National Guard, the state constabulary, the coal and iron police and other organized gangs of coal operators thugs. Over 500,000 men, women and children in the coal fields are facing cold, sickness and starvation.

President Lewis, with his international and district machines, has forced upon the union a policy which has brought it to the verge of destruction. During the whole life of the Jacksonville agreement the Lewis machine made no attempt to prepare the union for the present struggle and refused to conduct effective organizational work in the non-union territories.

FAILURE TO ORGANIZE MINERS.

Lewis is cooperating with the coal companies to drive 200,000 miners out of the industry. He has already succeeded in forcing 200,000 miners out of the union. The refusal of the Lewis machine to organize West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee and sections of Western Pennsylvania has allowed the operators to cut wages in these territories and to flood the market with cheaply mined coal to break our strike and disrupt the union.

Against the militant miners who pointed out the dangers which the union faced and who urged the union to adopt a fighting program, President Lewis carried on an open war. Hundreds of loyal members and whole locals and districts in Nova Scotia, Kansas, Alberta, Anthracite, Illinois, etc., have been expelled for opposing the judicial policy of the Lewis machine.

Democracy in the union has become merely a memory. Lewis rules like a czar. He packed the last convention, steam-rolled the rank and file delegates and raised his salary to $12,00 per year. From June to December, 1927, while the striking miners were starving on a dollar or two a week relief money, Lewis drew $11,093.66 for salary and personal expenses. The salaries of Murray and Kennedy were also raised to $9,000.

The Lewis machine has never been elected. It stole the election from the Howat forces in 1920, from Voysey in 1924, and from the Brophy “Save the Union” slate in 1926. It does not represent the choice or will of the membership.

Lewis refused to enforce the Jacksonville agreement during the life of the contract. The operators were allowed to do as they pleased, systematically breaking up the union and robbing the miners of hard-won conditions, by cutting wages, by refusing to pay for all kinds of dead work, by cutting the yardage rates, by refusing to pay for the setting up of timber and bailing of water, by placing two or three miners in one room, etc.

LEWIS FOR SEPARATE PACTS.

Before the strike began, April 1, 1927, Lewis offered to sign separate district agreements and thus to wipe out the policy of the Central Competitive Field agreement which our union fought for years to get and maintain.

For almost six months after the strike was called the Lewis machine did nothing to organize strike relief.

The failure of the union officials to organize mass picketing and mass violation of the injunctions was a betrayal of the strike. The Fagans, Halls, etc., did nothing to win the strike. They systematically suppressed all militancy in the strike. They preached reliance on the A.F. of L. officials’ conferences of reactionaries, on appeals to Coolidge, Fisher and Pinchot and to empty senate investigations.

Lewis and Fishwick of District 12 betrayed the strike by signing a separate agreement for Illinois, they deserted the Pennsylvania and Ohio miners and took the pressure off the Illinois operators during the winter. They put over an arbitration and speed-up agreement for District 12. Now the operators in Illinois, strengthened by Lewis’ policies, are insisting upon $1.50 wage cut and a decrease of 24 cents in the tonnage rates. They are out to break up the union. 40,000 Illinois miners are unemployed while the operators install labor displacing machinery without a wage differential, and Lewis and Fishwick are cooperating with them in this. The same separate agreement policy followed in Indiana.

In the anthracite the arbitration agreement signed by the Lewis-Capelini machine in 1925, together with the joint action of the operators, the contractors and the tri-district officials, is wrecking the union. 70,000 anthracite miners are jobless or working one or two days per week.

MILITANTS SHOT DOWN.

The operators are allowed to violate the contract at will. Wage rates are being reduced in many ways. Grievances are not adjusted by the district machines. The contractor system is throwing thousands of miners out of work. Local union officials and rank and file leaders who fight for an honest and militant union are shot down by Cappelini gunmen as were Thomas Lillis, Samuel Grecco and Alex Campbell and Pete Reilly. Militant miners are framed up as in the case of Sam Bonita. It is the same frame-up system that was used against Corbishley and the other Zeigler, Illinois miners who are now in jail.

Loading machinery adds to the unemployment. Through the Anthracite Boosters’ Association, the district officials join with the operators and business men to “lower the cost of anthracite”— which means in reality to reduce wage, speed up the miners and worsen working conditions.

The union in the anthracite is in great danger. It is being betrayed into the hands of the operators by the Lewis-Cappelini-Golden-Kennedy machine.

In the southwestern districts and in Canada the reactionary policies of Lewis have wrecked the union.

UNION FIGHTING FOR LIFE.

For ten years under the Lewis administration the union has steadily grown weaker, until now it is fighting for its very life.

The weakening of the miners’ union precipitates a crisis in the whole trade union movement. Encouraged by success in the coal industry the open shop employers are intensifying their drive against all sections of the labor movement.

Lewis attempts to explain away the breakdown of our organization on the ground of over-production in the industry, the use of substitutes for coal, etc. But this false claim will not permit the Lewis machine to hide the disastrous effects of its policies and escape responsibility. With an aggressive policy for shorter hours, and for the organization of the unorganized, the union could have been built up and conditions in the mines improved despite the so-called over-production.

MINERS, THE TIME HAS COME FOR ACTION!

The “Save the Union Committee” calls upon all members of the United Mine Workers and the miners in the unorganized districts to unite to smash the conspiracy against the miners’ union and living and working conditions in the mining industry.

STRIKE MUST BE WON.

The miners must unite. The strike can and must be won. We must mobilize our full forces to spread the strike and to beat back the open shop attacks of the employers.

The Lewis machine and its ruinous policies must go. Miners, take control of the local unions! Take the union into your own hands!

Pennsylvania and Ohio Miners: Hold fast in your brave fight! Mass picketing and mass violation of injunctions are absolutely necessary for winning the strike. The National “Save the Union” Conference will build up the utmost possible support to your heroic battle.

Miners of Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and the Southwest: You have been double-crossed by the Lewis policy of separate agreements. The operators have used this Lewis policy to weaken the Pennsylvania-Ohio strike, to cripple your own district organization and to worsen your working conditions. Strike April First! Insist upon a national settlement.

Miners of the Hard-coal District: The Lewis-Cappelini-Golden-Kennedy machine has sacrificed your interests by the arbitration and speed-up agreements, by the contractor system, and the terroristic regime in the union. Its grip on the union must be broken. Your interests are one with the interests of the bituminous miners.

Miners of the Unorganized Districts: Time and again you have been betrayed in the worst way by the Lewis machine. We know that you want to organize and to establish union conditions. The Colorado strike demonstrated that. The National “Save the Union” Conference will lay the basis to organize the unorganized districts.

PROGRAM OF ACTION.

The National “Save the Union” Conference will take definite steps:

2. To mobilize the full forces of the miners—organized and unorganized—to win the Pennsylvania and Ohio strike.

3. To organize the great masses of unorganized miners and to weld them into one powerful union.

4. To advance the general program of “Save the Union” Committee: for a six-hour day and five-day week, for nationalization of the miners, for a labor party, for state insurance and relief of unemployment and for equal division of work, a national agreement for all coal miners, against arbitration and speed-up agreements, no wage cuts, for the Jacksonville scale, for an honest and aggressive leadership, the re-establishment of democracy in the union and abolition of company control.

Miners! Lewis and his whole machine must go! Take control of the union! Win the Pennsylvania and Ohio strike! Organize the unorganized! Build the union! Save the union from the reactionary officialdom and the coal operators!

Miners everywhere: Come to the National Conference of the “Save the Union Committee.” If your local union does not elect delegates, then form groups to send representatives. Disregard all intimidation and ignore all rumors of postponement of the conference.

The National “Save the Union” Conference will put a halt to the offensive of the operators and will mark the beginning of a new period of growth and success for the miners’ union.

Send all credentials to Room 405, 526 Federal St., Pittsburgh, Pa., and also requests for further information.

For the Save the Union Committee,

John Brophy, Pat Toohey, Powers Hapgood, 526 Federal St., N.S., Pittsburgh.

There are a number of journals with this name in the history of the movement. This ‘Communist’ was the main theoretical journal of the Communist Party from 1927 until 1944. Its origins lie with the folding of The Liberator, Soviet Russia Pictorial, and Labor Herald together into Workers Monthly as the new unified Communist Party’s official cultural and discussion magazine in November, 1924. Workers Monthly became The Communist in March, 1927 and was also published monthly. The Communist contains the most thorough archive of the Communist Party’s positions and thinking during its run. The New Masses became the main cultural vehicle for the CP and the Communist, though it began with with more vibrancy and discussion, became increasingly an organ of Comintern and CP program. Over its run the tagline went from “A Theoretical Magazine for the Discussion of Revolutionary Problems” to “A Magazine of the Theory and Practice of Marxism-Leninism” to “A Marxist Magazine Devoted to Advancement of Democratic Thought and Action.” The aesthetic of the journal also changed dramatically over its years. Editors included Earl Browder, Alex Bittelman, Max Bedacht, and Bertram D. Wolfe.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/communist/v07n03-mar-1928-communist.pdf