STRIKE STRATEGY
dent Green of the A. F. of L., made a tentative agreement with the employers, the famous "eight points."
But the left wing leadership rejected this agreement, mobilized the strikers against it and carried on the struggle till a much better settlement was arrived at. This was a major defeat for the arch-reactionary, Green. Powerful enemies of his among the upper bureaucracy of the A. F. of L. are now using it against him, claiming that he compromised the A. F. of L. badly by permitting himself to be so badly out-maneuvered by the Communist trade union leader, Gold.
If treacherous strike settlements are special danger points that the left wing strategists must guard against in their fight against the right wing, so also are those situations when the masses are in a state of great foment and the right wing leaders refuse to mobilize them for the struggle.
Cases in point were the failure of the Brotherhood chiefs to strike their men in common cause with the railroad shop mechanics in 1922; and the failure of Lewis to call out the bituminous miners in 1925 in conjunction with the strike of the anthracite miners. Both these failures, which amounted to treason to the workers, were disastrous. In one case the great shopmen's strike was lost and the backbone of railroad trade unionism broken, and in the other the very life of the Miners’ Union has been threatened by the disintegration of its bituminous section.
Forcing the Issue
The left wing strategists must find ways and means to force the hands of the right wing leaders in such critical situations by mobilizing the membership against them. This is a real test of our strike strategy, especially where the left wing has but little organization. In the past, in such
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