es a | CT ne TOT CT rT _ _| — Past e oa pty i ais Eee ie es Fh Gi xperience— labor's big weapon! By GEORGE MORRIS As the current war between labor and capital.gets sharper, a frequently heard term is “‘stock- piling.” Stockpiling of goods in preparation for a strike is the piling up of ammunition either to break a strike or to get bet- - ter terms from the workers after a prolonged wearing out and hungering out process. This con- veniently fits in with the mono- poly tactic of creating scarcity and jacking up prices. The contract deadline in basic. steel is still six months off, but “already, as the business publi- cations report, steel orders are nearing a fever level as steel us- ers stockpile supplies for a pos- sibly long strike. The big manufacturing com- panies reached a peaceful set- tlement with the steel union. But in anticipation of a strike, they stockpiled heavily. There is no loss for them. They may only have a longer layoff for their ’ workers when the season slows. ‘The glass container compa-: “nies similarly filled extra heavy orders for the various bottling and canning enterprises prior to the current strike of their 32,000 workers. Aluminum. companies, with their deadlines in June, are stocking up for their customers. We saw the same in automo- biles. Fhe United Automobile Workers, suspecting that GM counted on a big stockpile at all showrooms, directed its’ mem- bers to refuse overtime during negotiations. But it is doubtful if that would have been an ap- preciable influence, had it comé to a company-wide strike. — In many fields there is one or another form of stockpiling for | war on the unions. But there is hardly a comparison to what we | have seen in copper. ’The workers have -been out for seven months and copper is still available to fill the orders of copper-using firms. The cop- per mined .and. refined in the U.S. is still ‘available in car- loads, and ccopper~ coming in from Latin American and Afri- can mines .is plentiful and pro- fitable. . In some respects this is an old story. Often in the past coal miners watched the coal piles to judge how soon serious negotia- tions would begin. But there is much that isnew on this problem. Technology has advanced. It is possible today to pile up more goods, faster, and with fewer workers. Much of the - .. «New Soviet cross-country vehicle with a unique rotor design. Replacing the conventional caterpillar track, the rotors are filled with Porous plastic which allows the vehicle to travel on “water, over snow, ice and mud. Its 74 h.p. motor moves the craft over snow at 12 mph and 6 mph on water. The vehicle weighs 7,934 Ibs. ane has q. carrying capacity of 2,645 Ibs. production process is, ‘mated. ‘prescribed in .auto- In oil, for example a handful of workers can operate the vast automated refineries. In many such fields, some of ’ them in key “pattern-setting” in- dustries, it is not sufficient just to shut down plants and prevent strikebreaking. Some companies even say “we can afford to sit it out” and they even treat the men in the picket shack to coffee and provide coal for a heater. Few in labor ranks give vent aloud to their thought on this problem. Here and there you hear of advocates of a “new” approach, such as more govern- ment influence in bargaining, closer ,collaboration, or consul- tation between labor leaders and employers. But those proposals are really very old and they have proven futile. Unfortunately, most of our labor leaders ignore some well proven and ‘successful exper- ience from the past. The traditional labor weapon of unity ahd solidarity has been dulled in much of the labor movement by a number of fac- tors. ; First is the fact that, politi- cally, labor leaders, for the most part, have been riding the De- mocratic Party kite for a long _ time as though it were “Jabor’s party.” As.a result many are very reluctant to do anything that may embarass their politi- cal friends. - Second, is the conformance, voluntarily or reluctantly, of much of the labor movement with the network of anti-labor restrictions that have been woven since Taft-Hartley to re- strict unions on the conduct of effective strikes and organizing. Third is the fact that much of the traditional spirit and rule of solidarity, including even gene- ral strikes, that has been the guideline for labor since earlier days, and that reached its high mark in the thirties, has been siphoned off by ~ conservative union leadership. 4 ‘There are other factors, by no- means the least important of them the influence of the cold- war policy and the techniques of anti-communism, which have been applied against all pro- pressives. . The current trend is in the op- posite direction toward the idea that a strike must be made a struggle of all labor of an area, or nationally, depending on its scope, from the very start. That needs to be done not only in terms of financial and food collections for the strikers —important as that may be—. but in terms of appropriate ac- tion that wlll show an employer | and the government that they are not dealing with just one segment of labor. .That, of course, means using strategy in labor’s traditional way, not according to the rules union-busting laws. That demands a revitaliza- tion of the “one for all and all for one” principle—the once tra- ditional labor rule of not touch- ing any scab-produced goods; the strict respect of a picket line; the boycott weapon and even the move for a general strike where professional scabs are used, or strikes stretch for weeks. > WI Wats an 4 # Defenders of Hue : The horror in Vietnam invokés the past as ‘ one searches for historical parallels. President Johnson is quoted shouting at his aides: “dammit, I don’t want any Dien Bien Phus.” One thinks of the tantrums of Hitler in his bunker in-Berlin. The daily press conjures up the memory of Dien Bien Phu and American generals say it can’t happen to them. We read about the battle of Hue and one imagines the news reportage of the battle of Stalingrad that the German people must have read. It is only in glimpses that one can gain an : appreciation of what is happening. We can glimpse the degeneracy of the American mili- tary, which perhaps has no historical parallel. The nazis herded the victims to the crematori- ums to the villages and cities, the U.S. brings the crematoriums to the cities, neatly packaged in cannisters of napalm. In the city of Hue, the flag of the National Liberation Front flew over the citadel, while every structure is systematically destroyed by land, | sea and air as the U.S. uses every weapon in its arsenal. Their impotent fury drives them to new depths—summary executions for “suspected enemies,” and one American “advi- sor” with the Saigon puppet army justifies the murder of the wounded because of the “short- age of hospital facilities.” An understanding of the other side of the war is far more difficult to perceive. Who are these people who can withstand, defeat and humiliate the American military with all their. ghoulish weapons? Who are these people who year after year can face their executioners and emerge triumphant? Itis nota shadowy band of guerrillas that the Americans face in -Vietnam, but a whole nation aroused and united. It is from this unity that the patriots of Vietnam draw their courage and heroism which no force can ever destroy. As this is written they say that the flag of liberation has been torn from the citadel of Hue. This may be true for the moment, but the larger truth is that the banner of the National Libera- ‘tion Front is the fabric of South Vietnam which will never be torn away. -The defenders of Hue have written an in- delible chapter in mankind’s struggle for a new world. Their heroism and self-sacrifice will re- main long after the despised name of Lyndon - Johnson is erased from memory. That means getting into the spirit of some of the struggle and successful experience we have witnessed in the recent period. Like actions of the New York Transport Workers Union leaders, led by the late Michael Quill, who ignored a state law banning their strike and rather chose to go to jail. More recen- tly the actions of the New York teachers, - sanitation workers, and hospital workers. It means supplementing strikes ‘ with more ‘mass demonstrations involving all unions and people. in communities much as the New York Central Labor Council has been doing in recent years, and along lines of the militant civil rights movement. The younger people in the labor unions, today a growing pressure force, are demanding > such an approach. This does not spring from just militant senti- ment. It is organizing and strike strategy that has been proved effective by labor’s experience.