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REFUSE Strikebreaking Duty! Organize Company Committees to Prevent Strike Duty!
New York, [ca. 1934]. Circular, 8.5” x 5.5”. 4 pp., 3 b&w illus. CONDITION: Good+, light creasing and toning, a few short tears to margins. A solidarity outreach circular issued by the Young Communist League to members of the National Guard in the midst of the landmark labor organizing and strike-breaking violence that ushered in the era of industrial unionism in America. Published during the 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike—and on the heels of the Toledo Auto-Lite Strike—this Young Community League circular urges “All Workingmen, Farmers and Students in the National Guards” to band together and become “heroes of the working class” by refusing strike duty. Whether they are called to break strikes in their home state or elsewhere, guardsmen are urged to refuse “to shoot our own brothers and sisters, your own flesh and blood!” The legitimacy of striking—of fighting “for more money…better working conditions…decent prices for farm produce”—is emphasized, and the circular asks: “Why is it that the National Guard is never used to arrest the capitalists, the Wall Street bankers who rob the poor, or the landlords and insurance companies that force the farmers off their land…Every one of you knows the strikers are right…What are we going to do about it?” Four powerful capitalist executives are listed, with their companies and their command of various National Guard regiments against striking workers. The final page issues several calls to action, including writing letters to the governors of California and Minnesota, demanding the “withdrawal of National Guard from strike duty,” and joining the Communist Party or the Young Communist League. The West Coast Waterfront Strike, organized by the International Longshoremen’s Association, was an eighty-three-day effort during which two workers were killed, and which was not settled until a general strike in San Francisco shut down the city for four days. This strike paved the way for the unionization of all West Coast ports. Concurrently, the Minneapolis general strike—sparked by the Teamsters—lasted from May until August, was riddled with violence, (National Guard troops killing two and injuring sixty-seven strikers on one “Bloody Friday” in July), and ultimately resulted in the organization of truck drivers and the expansion of the Teamsters Union. The Toledo Auto-Lite Strike, which lasted just under two months and had concluded by the time this circular was printed, included a violent, five-day battle between strikers and National Guardsmen that left two dead and more than 200 injured, and led to the widespread unionization of Toledo.
Item #6415
Price: $375.00
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