[The Teamster strikes have great significance for a…]

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By JAKE COOPER and HARRY DEBOER This year is the 50th anniversary of the now famous Minneapolis Teamster strikes. It also marks the anniversary of the Toledo Auto-Lite strike and the San Francisco Longshoremen's strike.

The Teamster strikes have great significance for a number of reasons. First, they put to the test the correctness of the Trotskyist strategy for organizing a mass labor struggle.

Second, they signalled the start of a new era for the labor movement. The strikes combined all the old ideas of the IWW and the radical left on industrial unionism and put them to the test.

Third, they gave a tremendous lift to the Trotskyist party and helped to give it a solid national organization.

Fourth, they took Minneapolis from an open-shop town, where the employers' Citizens Alliance ruled the roost, to a union city.

The Teamster Local 574—later called 544—under the leadership of the Dunne brothers, Carl Skoglund, Farrell Dobbs, Harry De Boer, and a host of other outstanding militants, organized virtually thousands of workers into their respective unions.

Fifth, they proved that in every union struggle, labor must depend on its own strength and never on capitalist politicians. The slogans of Local 574 were "Labor must stand together as one" and "In Unity there is strength." These gave special meaning to the song, "Solidarity Forever."

Sixth, they gave special meaning to democracy and freedom of speech in the ...Selander fight would do.

We consulted a nationally known labor fighter who had led several successful anti-injunction fights. We had the good sense to take his advice and act on it. As you probably know, we wrote a public letter to Judge Stuart telling him that we were going to violate his anti-labor injunction and call for mass picketing. By mass picketing we didn't mean a few hundred, we meant thousands. Could we get thousands down to that picket line? Well, that was the $64 question.

We had spent the previous year organizing what some qualified observer said was the largest and most militant unemployed organization in the country-the Lucas County Unemployed League. We had held meetings and spoken in every section of the city and in the townships; organized countless marches, demonstrations, sit-ins; stopped evictions; won cash relief with a relief strike; and had held many, many other actions. Because of this vast experience, we felt sure that we knew the temper of the Toledo workers. We felt we had a good chance to be the fuse that could ignite a spirit of solidarity with the Auto-Lite strikers to get union recognition and perhaps even win the first union contract in the auto plants of Toledo.

It was apparent from everything we'd read, that the workers all over the country were beginning to stir.

On the first day that we violated the injunction, our mass picket line consisted of four individuals. That's right— just four. We were arrested, jailed, convicted, and let out on bail and warned not to return to that picket line. But we told the judge that we were going back. And we did-picking up some fifty pickets on the way. After that, there were a series of arrests, each one with a greater amount of pickets-first 46, then 108, and in between many smaller numbers. Every time we went back from the courts and jail, the picket lines unions. The membership was the highest body of the unions. No union officer could settle any contract without the agreement of the general membership meeting. Furthermore, it was written into the contract that it was a violation for any union member to cross any picket line. Any labor union in a struggle for union recognition or for better conditions could count on Teamster Local 574 for help.

Unemployed joined strikes

Seventh, the Teamsters knew how important it was to make allies of the unemployed. They organized the Federal Workers' Section of Local 544 which assisted the unemployed and other welfare recipients, and saw that they got fair treatment from the relief agencies. They also organized workers on federal work projects like the Works Projects Administration (WPA), and fought for union wages on those jobs. They also told the unemployed workers that the struggle for shorter hours meant more work for them.

The unemployed then played an important role in the 1934 strike. Many were jailed or injured in the strikes. John Belor, who was unemployed, gave his life. The farmers were told, "Our fight is your fight. Workers can't buy what you produce without proper wages."

The union told the farmers they could bring their produce to market without harassment. The farmers in turn donated food to the union commissary, and actually helped patrol roads leading into the city against scab operators.

Every worker in the area was considkept growing steadily until on May 23rd there were 10,000 reported on the street in front of the plant. (Applause.)

Now when you have a mass picket line of thousands, it enables you to counter the company's offensive moves. For example, they brought out a highpressure hose and turned a stream of water on us. But it didn't take very long for a couple of hundred pickets to take the hose away and turn the water on them. (Applause.) Many times the police and deputies brutally clubbed the pickets, but before they could shove them into a patrol wagon enough pickets rushed in and grabbed the picket away and often gave them a taste of their own clubs. (Applause.)

You know that every good union has two educational committees: one to arrange lectures of all' kinds and the other to educate scabs who won't attend classes. (Applause.)

Half the employees at the Auto-Lite were women who were among the very best strikers we had. (Applause.) A couple of days after the National Guard came in, the women grabbed a scab, took him into an alley, and stripped every bit of clothing off of him except his tie and shoes. (Laughter.) Then they marched him, naked as a jaybird, up and down the downtown streets. (Applause.) Next day the papers carried a large picture of him on the front page, but they had had their artist broaden and lengthen the tie to hide the family jewels. (Laughter.) You can bet that picture discouraged a lot of scabs, but it got a big round of applause from the unionists in Toledo.

The Auto-Lite strikers battled first the police, then the company guards and deputies, and finally the National Guard. The first day the Guard came in they fired without warning at the unarmed strikers, killing two and wounding 25. Unfortunately, I no longer remember the names of the two brothers who were killed, but they must not be forgotten. [Editor's note: the two unionists were Frank Hubay and Stephen Cioban.] They are among the many unsung heroes who fought and died to advance the cause of labor. ered an ally. And most workers responded. They knew and felt that Local 574's struggle was their fight also. The workers responded in mass to meetings called by Local 574. They reacted by keeping the union informed of what the employers and police were up to. They helped on the picket line and offered their services in the commissary and wherever needed. They were the eyes and ears of the union.

The strike was organized to the hilt. The union rented a giant garage for its headquarters. It housed a commissary to feed the strikers-medical assistance for injured pickets and committees to take care of the needy. Picket squads were always organized and ready.

The leadership organized a new mode of picketing. Flying squadrons in cars roved the city streets to see that no scab vehicles operated. Those they found were sent scurrying.

After those murders, the enraged strikers fought the guard for six days and nights-returning again and again to face tear gas and vomit gas, bayonet charges, and even rifle fire. During lulls in the battle, we stood on boxes educating the guardsmen about the issues in the strike and how they were being used against the workers. By the way, the casualties were not all one-sided. The hospitals were patching up not only strikers but police, deputies, and the National Guardsmen.

On June 4, the company surrendered and signed on the dotted line a union contract giving the strikers priority on jobs, a 5 percent wage increase, and other concessions; agreed to withdraw all court charges and to pay all court costs. The logjam in Toledo had finally been broken, and 19 auto plants were organized before the year ended. The road was cleared to make Toledo a union town.

Currently, I understand you have a very serious situation at the AP Parts plant where they have imported professional strike breakers-this Nuckols outfit with 40 goons. This same gang has broken strikes in a number of cities recently. A tremendous fight confronts the union. That's a hard nut to crack and they need support from the entire labor movement. Every union is threatened. I know what we would all like to see, and that would be that Local 14 and Local 12 and the Central Labor Union jointly organize a giant protest demonstration of organized labor at the AP Parts plant. (Applause.) That would prove to AP that the labor movement meant business.

As a participant in the Auto-Lite strike of 1934, I appreciate this opportunity to join with you in this 50th anniversary celebration. It is a credit to all of you who organized this anniversary to keep alive the memory of labor's untapped strength as demonstrated in the Auto-Lite strike and all the other battles which prove that in unions we are strong.

Solidarity, The Trotskyist leadership proved its theories on the street. The boss class controlled the political parties. It was simple to see in what direction the police clubs were aimed. Not once were the laws on the side of the strikers. Some workers saw the light and joined the Trotskyist party. The party showed considerable growth. In spite of the fact that Minneapolis was an open-shop city, the leadership of Local 574 organized support from most craft unions.

Minneapolis made union town The employers, through the Citizens Alliance, tried every trick in the book to break the unions. They organized strike breakers, special deputies, and the police. They tried red-baiting against the union, assisted by Dan Tobin, president of the Teamsters International. The Teamsters answered every charge in their newspaper, the Northwest Organizer. The tremendous struggles and solidarity of the workers made Minneapolis a union town.

Today many labor leaders say that the Teamster struggle was a forerunner of the CIO. It showed how to organize workers on an industrial basis. Capitalism in the 1930s was in a terrible depression. The conditions of the workers were abominable. Today capitalism is again in a worldwide crisis. Workers are faced with an anti-union drive and the bosses are trying to take away all of the gains labor has made in the last 50 years by smashing unions, cutting wages, and imposing worse work conditions.

The methods that were proper 50 years ago can work today. The key is a revolutionary socialist party that preaches solidarity in the labor movement and that calls for an independent union-sponsored labor party.

Jake Cooper and Harry DeBoer, veteran Trotskyists, were leaders of the Teamsters union Local 574 and of the Socialist Workers Party. They were among the Minneapolis 18 who were imprisoned during World War II for their opposition to the war.

Jake Cooper, a member of Socialist Action, will be in Sweden this month at the invitation of Socialistiska Partiet, the Swedish section of the Fourth International. He will be speaking at the SP's summer camp on "The Life of Carl Skoglund. "

Skoglund was a leader of the historic Minneapolis Teamster strikes of 1934 and a founding member of the Socialist Workers Party. Skoglund was born in Sweden 100 years ago and was well known in his native country as a socialist and antiwar activist before coming to the United States.

Jake Cooper will also speak on "The Working Class Struggle in the United States— Yesterday and Today. " Future issues of Socialist Action will report on Cooper's Swedish tour.

SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1984 5

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Mass mobilizations in Brazil:

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Socialist veteran tours Sweden