advocating the organization of workers defense guards 6ulyanovistSeptember 21 2004, 22:55:03 UTC
Q: Did any international trade unions ever adopt that idea, as far as you know? A: I don’t know. I know the question was raised in the Garment Workers Union, which had a double concern about the matter because, first, as a labor union they were menaced by the growth of fascism, and second, a large percentage of their members are Jews who are considered proper victims by these hoodlums. A resolution was passed in favor of the idea in one of the garment locals in New York, and was referred then to the International Executive Board for consideration, and some correspondence and some interviews between our comrades who had sponsored the idea and the officers of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union took place. I don’t think it developed any further, either positively or negatively, because the fascist movement subsided and the issue got cold. Q: So that the issue of the workers’ defence guard died down because a change of conditions occurred? A: Yes. We retained the proposal for workers’ defence guards in our program. I believe it is on the editorial page of The Militant as one of the points we are proposing as a practical program. Q: And it becomes vital especially in view of a possible fascist movement in our country? A: Yes. At that time our paper was full of stories and articles about the Bundists and the Christian Fronters, and so on, but if you look over the files, they show a gradual recession of reports about fascist violence. And the question of the workers’ defence guard left the pages of the paper and is only occasionally raised there now in a slogan. (Defendants’ Exhibit H was marked for identification.) The Witness (Continuing):-I might add, Mr. Goldman, that so far as I know, there doesn’t exist now any functioning workers’ defence guard in any part of the country that our members are associated with, not to my knowledge. But we retain the idea for practical education in case the unions should again encounter the experience of those days. Mr. Goldman: I offer in evidence, Your Honour, Defendants’ Exhibit H-1 to H-5, inclusive, being a copy of a resolution entitled “Convention Resolution on Workers’ Defence Guard”, published in the Socialist Appeal of July 7, 1939.
A: I don’t know. I know the question was raised in the Garment Workers Union, which had a double concern about the matter because, first, as a labor union they were menaced by the growth of fascism, and second, a large percentage of their members are Jews who are considered proper victims by these hoodlums. A resolution was passed in favor of the idea in one of the garment locals in New York, and was referred then to the International Executive Board for consideration, and some correspondence and some interviews between our comrades who had sponsored the idea and the officers of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union took place. I don’t think it developed any further, either positively or negatively, because the fascist movement subsided and the issue got cold.
Q: So that the issue of the workers’ defence guard died down because a change of conditions occurred?
A: Yes. We retained the proposal for workers’ defence guards in our program. I believe it is on the editorial page of The Militant as one of the points we are proposing as a practical program.
Q: And it becomes vital especially in view of a possible fascist movement in our country?
A: Yes. At that time our paper was full of stories and articles about the Bundists and the Christian Fronters, and so on, but if you look over the files, they show a gradual recession of reports about fascist violence. And the question of the workers’ defence guard left the pages of the paper and is only occasionally raised there now in a slogan.
(Defendants’ Exhibit H was marked for identification.)
The Witness (Continuing):-I might add, Mr. Goldman, that so far as I know, there doesn’t exist now any functioning workers’ defence guard in any part of the country that our members are associated with, not to my knowledge. But we retain the idea for practical education in case the unions should again encounter the experience of those days.
Mr. Goldman: I offer in evidence, Your Honour, Defendants’ Exhibit H-1 to H-5, inclusive, being a copy of a resolution entitled “Convention Resolution on Workers’ Defence Guard”, published in the Socialist Appeal of July 7, 1939.
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