Cleveland, with over 30% foreign-born in 1920, hosts a conference to defend immigrant workers from an offensive by the Federal government.

‘Cleveland Workers Prepare to Fight Laws Against Foreign-Born’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 3 No. 41. February 28, 1926.

CLEVELAND WORKERS PREPARE TO FIGHT LAWS AGAINST FOREIGN-BORN; CALL CONFERENCE FOR MARCH 14

CLEVELAND, Feb. 26. In his message ‘to congress, President Coolidge urged the adoption of a law to register the alien residents in this country. Representatives Aswoll, Johnson, McLintic and others propose in resolutions No. 5583, 3748, 6523 and 4489 now before congress that all foreign-born workers shall be registered, photographed and fingerprinted. If these bills become law, the foreign-born workers will be subject to the same tyrannical methods used by the kaizer and the czar.

The foreign-born workers in this country must awaken to a realization of their situation. If these bills are enacted into law, any worker may be stopped on the street and be required to show his registration card. If he moves from one place to another, he will be obliged to report to the police. In short, the foreign-born workers will constantly be under police control.

But even if these bills do not pass congress, the foreign-born workers must recognize that they are constantly exposed to the attacks of the employing class. The capitalists, who control this country, have little respect for their own laws. In order to intimidate the working class, and particularly the foreign-born, the capitalists maintain such organizations as the American Legion, the Minute Men, the National Security League, etc., whose “respect for the law” is well known.

What Is the Situation?

According to the United States census of 1920, there are in the United States 13,94,891 foreign-born. In the state of Ohio there are 678,697 foreign-born out of a total population of 5, 759,395 or 11.8 per cent. In the city of Cleveland there were 239,538 foreign-born out of a total population of 762,026 or 31.43 per cent–that is, about one out of every three persons.

Among the most exploited workers of this country are the foreign-born and Negro workers. Wherever there is big industry–and especially heavy industry, which is the dominating force in the state of Ohio, there one finds large numbers of foreign-born workers. Thus in the iron and steel industry, 58 per cent of the workers are foreign-born; in the bituminous coal mining industry, 62 per cent are foreign-born. A large part of the workers in the automobile industry, maintenance of way men on the railways, building laborers, etc., are foreign-born. In short, the hardest, poorest-paid workers in industry are foreign-born.

To them must be added the Negro workers, hundreds of thousands of whom have been brought to the northern states to furnish “cheap hands” for industry. The bituminous coal mining Industry and the needle industry are the only two industries in which there is a large proportion of foreign-born workers organized into trade unions. In the steel and automobile industry, there is practically no organization whatsoever.

Trade Unions in Danger.

The capitalists of this country are well aware that the present state of “prosperity,” which they enjoy, will not continue long. They declare that up to July there may be a continuance of the present stage of production and then there will be a decline. Knowing that depressed conditions will give them an excuse for demanding lowered conditions for the working class as a whole, they are today beginning an attack on the organized labor movement.

The open shoppers are active all over the country, and particularly in the state of Ohio, where they claim that more and more factories are going on the open shop plan. The destruction of the labor movement is their aim.

What is their method? The capitalists understand their game very well. First they attack the weakest section of the working class; the foreign-born. The foreign-born worker is merely tolerated in this country. If, in disappointment with things in this country, he endeavors to improve his situation, he is met with the cry, “It you don’t like this country go back to where you came from.” These are the words that come from the mouths of the very same capitalists who demand that the government shall empower the president to allow the admission of alien labor whenever industry requires it.

Foreign-Born Workers Oppressed.

Why do the capitalists prefer foreign-born workers? Because they know that they can always hold over the heads of these workers the threat of deportation. Just as they are telling Negro workers in industry in the north to go back to the south if they do not like conditions. Hence, by attacking the foreign-born workers they are always in a position to attack the entire labor movement, by lowering the standards of the foreign-born and compelling the native American workers to accept the same conditions. In addition, by attacking the foreign-born workers, they can prevent the unorganized from getting organized and increasing the power of organized labor.

If the foreign-born workers rebel against the discrimination and bad treatment they receive in this country, they may be arrested and deported. This means untold hardships to foreign-born workers who will be torn from their families and be de ported to countries like Poland, Jugo-Slavia, Italy, Hungary, Finland, Esthonia, etc., where fascism and the white terror are in power and murdering the best elements of the working class.

Organize Councils for Defense.

Realizing the seriousness of the present situation, the undersigned organization calls on the foreign-born to organize. All fraternal organizations and groups of foreign-born people, regardless of nationality, are called upon to participate in the formation of councils for their defense. The organized labor movement, which likewise is attacked in the proposed laws, should and must line up with the foreign-born workers in their own defense; and Negro workers must link their forces with other sections of the working class.

To this end, all trade unions, fraternal societies, lodges, sick and death benefit societies, workers’ clubs of all nationalities, and all other working class organizations are called on to elect delegates to a conference which will be held on Sunday, March 14, 10 a.m. at the Insurance Center Bldg., Hall “A.” 1783 E. 11th St., 6th Floor, where it is proposed that the Cleveland council for the protection of foreign-born workers be formed.

At this conference, ways and means will be worked out to fight the passage of the bills now before congress, and to organize a permanent council, which will always be on watch to protect the interests of the foreign-born workers and the workers of this city as a whole.

In addition a mass meeting will be held the same day, at 3 o’clock in the Moose Hall, 1000 Walnut street, Prominent speakers will address this meeting.

Each trade union, fraternal and other working class organization should elect two delegates to represent their organization at the conference. Conferences of foreign language groups may elect two to four delegates.

The time to act is now. Only by organization will the workers be able to protect themselves against the threatening steps of the employing class.

Executive council of the provisional council for the protection of foreign-born workers.

Joseph Keller, Secretary, 2904 Bridge Ave.

PDF of full issue: The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1926/1926-ny/v03-n041-Chi-feb-28-1926-DW-LOC.pdf