Page:Samuel Gompers - Out of Their Own Mouths (1921).djvu/127

 Rh of the Communists and that of the opposition—were given a fair field of contest. It was for this reason that the party in power was compelled to have recourse to meetings under the auspices of dissimilar organizations which were nothing but self-styled representatives of the proletariat; real representation has not existed in Russia for a long time. At these meetings the speakers fulminated against the printers. In this manner the "General conference" of the printers of Petrograd was organized and "unanimously" adopted a withering resolution against the Muscovite printers.

The value of the "unanimity" of the organized conferences, during which, under the menace of terrible reprisals, the representatives of the proletarian opposition are deprived of the possibility of telling the truth, is well known to every Russian worker. For this reason the government journals lodged the senseless and stupid charge of fomenting strikes against the Printers' Union. The printers have struck less than any other group of workers in Russia, thanks to their firm and solid organization. The workers in many other branches of industry, on the contrary, driven by despair, have declared numerous strikes. They saw no other way to improve their conditions. These conditions drove the majority of the Muscovite printers to the same extremity, but the movement was usually arrested by the officials of the Printers' Union.

For more than a month the Communists fashioned public opinion with the aid of their monopoly. They lied and calumniated without shame. Finally during the night of June 17, they arrested all the members of the administrative committee of the Printers' Union and all other officials of the union holding important positions with the exception of those who had the time to hide themselves. On the morning of June 18 the offices of the union were occupied by a detachment of government troops, and everyone who for any reason whatsover had displeased the Communists was arrested.