Implementation of 1933’s Open Letter in the then vehemently open shop Detroit where Party was trying to build the T.U.U.L.’s Auto Workers Union in the Motor City.

‘The Open Letter and Our Tasks in the Detroit District’ by John Schmies from The Communist. Vol. 12 No. 3. October, 1933.

TO BEGIN with, we must honestly state that as yet we cannot say that a basic change is noticeable in our district, especially if we take into consideration the central task of our Party, which is to root the Party in the shops.

It is true that here and there the Party is somewhat more consolidated. It is true the Open Letter has made us conscious of what we actually have, which, we all realize, is very little. It is true that some sections, such as Dearborn—the Ford City, and our sections in the Black Belt, are making some progress, slow though it is, but what is also true is that our shop work generally has not only not increased, but as we can see today, the Auto Workers Union has actually declined.

Therefore, we must say, politically we have failed, up to the present time, to make a serious beginning in the application of the Open Letter. It is only now, through the help of the Center, that we are beginning to become alarmed at the serious situation in Detroit. We have made a thorough investigation of our shop work and the A.W.U.

In examining the above-mentioned phases of our Party activity, we find the most unsatisfactory situation—unsatisfactory in the sense that we cannot even say the progress we have made is very slow. We cannot even say that we have made any progress at all. But what we actually did find concretely is a decline—this, in the face of the increased possibilities, especially among the masses of auto workers who are searching for organization, who are increasing their militancy as a result of the growing radicalization of the workers, and who are more and more showing their opposition to the N.R.A., which intends to force upon the workers the code of the auto bosses. We must register very seriously our failure to prepare politically the Party and the movement around the Party for the building up of struggles and strikes against the auto companies and against the leadership of the A. F. of L. and the Socialist Party, both of which are officially charged with policing the starvation program of the N.R.A.

I think, however, that we can say today that the district leadership is only now becoming alarmed about the situation and is beginning to mobilize the Party and the movement around the Party to apply the Open Letter. While taking up very seriously our fundamental shortcomings and how to apply and carry out the Open Letter, we do not minimize for a moment some of the good points that are noticeable since the Open Letter:

1. The increased activity and loyalty of the Party comrades, especially since the Open Letter. This was demonstrated overwhelmingly in our signature campaign to place the candidates on the ballot. In four days the Party comrades and the sympathizers got over 35,000 signatures.

2. The successful auto strike that was led by our comrades in Grand Rapids.

3. The building up of a Workers’ School.

4. The increased activity in and around the shops in building up contacts, in getting out factory papers and in carrying out general agitation-propaganda work, etc.

This mass activity that we are carrying on, and the hard work that the comrades are conducting, must be transformed and carried on by different and new methods. In other words, (a) The methods have to be fundamentally changed, and (b) the Party and the organizations around the Party must be politically prepared. This, then, will be the beginning of the carrying out of the Open Letter tasks.

THE SITUATION IN THE AUTO INDUSTRY

As a result of our failure the auto companies are launching a tremendous campaign to company-unionize the industry. We find also the A. F. of L. and the I.W.W. making deep inroads among sections of automobile workers, while, at the same time, the Auto Workers Union has not only not gained in membership, but has actually declined all the way down the line.

In practically all the shops, outside of the Ford Plant, both company and A, F. of L. unions are being built. Large sections of workers, primarily because of our failure to explain and expose these illusions, are very much confused as to what is going on—seeing on one side company unions, and on the other side A. F. of L. unions.

For instance, in the Hudson Plant workers are signing up for the A. F. of L. while, at the same time, they are being encouraged by the company union, in which some participate. Here again we must say that such confusion is bound to exist as long as we remain isolated and fail to give these workers a program around which they can be organized into struggle for their daily grievances.

It is not surprising to find all this confusion among the workers organized in company or A. F. of L. unions, or among the unorganized workers, but it surely must be not only surprising, but alarming, to find Party and A.W.U. members unable to give either a clear explanation of policy or a concrete program of struggle against the company unions or against the A. F. of L. leadership.

The committee that was appointed in Detroit to carry out the N.R.A. is composed of Frank X. Martel, the president of the Detroit Federation of Labor, and Nate Smith, leader of the Socialist Party in Michigan, and a group of open-shoppers. It is true they still use radical phrases, such as, “We are for higher wages,” but actually one can see in the appointment of Frank X. Martel that the committee is really an open agency in the auto industry to carry out the program of the bosses.

I have stated above that practically all organizations under the leadership of elements who are against a militant movement are growing, while, at the same time, the work of the Party in the shop, as well as the work of the A.W.U., is declining. Therefore, dealing with the given task of the Party, we must frankly state and alarm the Party into realizing that we have not yet made a serious beginning in carrying out the Open Letter in this field of activity.

IMMEDIATE STEPS FOR A MASS MOVEMENT

Mass meetings, factory gate meetings, and broad leaflet distribution become the immediate task in mobilizing the auto workers in order to prevent the companies from forcing company unions upon them. We must dramatize the necessity of the right to organize mass unions by the workers in the industry and the right to join the union of their own choice. We must explain in these meetings, speeches, leaflets and propaganda the right of the workers to build up their own organizations and to safeguard their daily interests against the program of exploitation and mass misery of the auto companies. Instead of company unions, rank and file unions of the workers, Instead of unions controlled by open-shoppers and A. F. of L. leaders, who endorse the slavery program of the auto bosses, a union in every shop, organized and controlled by the workers themselves. Instead of a union where the company forces upon the workers officials and representation, we must have a union where the workers elect their officials out of their own ranks, and elect those workers who have shown their loyalty and sincerity to their fellow-workers in the shop. Instead of a union that is led and guided by the A. F. of L. leadership, which is taking the lead in forcing the auto bosses’ code upon the workers, we must bring forward the militant Auto Workers Union, which is fighting for an auto code of the workers—an auto code that demands higher wages, better working conditions, elimination of the speed-up, a union that fights relentlessly against mass lay-offs, victimization, etc., that fights for immediate relief and unemployment insurance.

This auto campaign under the leadership of the Auto Workers Union must turn the sentiment for organization away from company unions and to a real militant, mass, rank and file union. In cases where the company unions are already established, the auto workers’ campaign must have as its task to elect, through a democratic election, real representatives of the workers who will not be the agents of the company against the workers, but will become the leaders of the workers against the company. The task of these representatives must be to fight for the code of the workers in the shop as against the code of the company that is being supported by Martel, Nate Smith and the committee of open-shoppers.

The Auto Workers Union must, at the same time, give the lead in this campaign to mobilize all the militant forces within the A. F. of L. unions, within the I.W.W., within the other organizations in the auto industry for a militant program based upon struggle. This is the only way to fight and stop the company unions, to fight, expose and to drive out of the industry the misleaders of labor such as Frank X. Martel, Nate Smith and leaders of the I.W.W., etc., and to build a united movement that will have as its aim to swing the rank and file members of these organizations and the unorganized auto working masses into the A.W.U.

Wherever we have contacts in the industry, shop groups must immediately be organized. These groups must become the active, leading, driving force in applying the general auto workers’ campaign in their particular shop or department. Concrete issues must be developed; meetings must be called together with these groups around these issues; committees must be elected and sent to the company; demands must be popularized, and the masses must be rallied behind the program of these shop groups, grievance committees, action committees or whatever the workers decide to call them. The entire campaign, whether carried out generally or concretely in and around shop or department, must be reinforced with the confidence of the workers, with increased eagerness on the part of the workers to fight. We must find out ways and means to electrify the rising spirit for organization among the auto masses.

There are a number of journals with this name in the history of the movement. This The 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/v12n10-oct-1933-communist.pdf