Page:Samuel Gompers - Out of Their Own Mouths (1921).djvu/128

 102 In the meantime the private lodgings of the employees of the union were searched.

This new act of violence against the working class aroused the indignation of all the printers in Moscow. They understood perfectly that the administrative council represented the executive organ of all the members of the union, especially because it was elected, contrary to the councils of all the other trade unions and the organs of the government, by universal suffrage.

Some of the workers struck and demanded the release of the imprisoned trade unionists. The masters of the situation employed against the strikers the same measures that the bouregoisiebourgeoisie [sic] in every country would like to apply but have never dared to. The strikers were deprived of food. Under present conditions, when the workers are underfed, this was the most rigorous weapon that could be used. At the same time the government placed under arrest the alleged strike leaders. These two measures attained the end desired by the government: the strikers went back to work, and perhaps, under the pressure of similar measures, they will soon be even forced to vote resolutions condemning the men who up to the present have been their leaders. But the hatred of the Moscow printers for the authors of this shameless punishment will not be lessened thereby; on the contrary, it will increase day by day, and a small amount of free atmosphere would suffice to chase the inquisitors away from the printers.

In addressing themselves to the international labor movement, the striking printers declare that, crushed by brutal physical force, they appeal to the only force which still preserves for them a moral significance, the moral power of the international labor movement. The striking printers assert that they can demonstrate to the international labor movement that they are right and not the Communists.

The striking printers declare that the new administrative council of the Printers' Union, which has been