Page:William Z. Foster, James P. Cannon and Earl Browder - Trade Unions in America.djvu/37

 reds of local unions for themselves when these locals exist only on paper and have not paid a cent of per capita into the union for years. An honest election would probably have shown the Communists elected at the head of the mine workers' union. The election was a profound demonstration of the spirit of class struggle among the miners, of the deep roots of the left wing among them, and the inevitable victory in the not distant future of the program of the Trade Union Educational League.

One more election that is of profound significance as demonstrating the progress of the left-wing in the American labor unions. That is the election in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, one of the oldest and most reactionary organizations in the labor movement. Not only is this organization dominated by a most corrupt and reactionary leadership and tradition, but it is also in the bulidingbuilding [sic] industry, which is one of the most prosperous fields of activity today in America, with high wages and comparatively favorable conditions for continued bureaucratic rule.

Yet even in this stronghold of reaction, where there has never before been a left wing, the rank and file are in such revolt against the sickening betrayals and class collaboration of the officialdom, that Morris Rosen, an unknown left winger of New York, was credited with almost 10,000 votes by the official election machinery, against the incumbent Hutcheson, and with another candidate, who traded on left wing sentiment by labelling himself "progressive," also in the field.

The Trade Union Educational League has done even more than to organize and lead the militant workers in the American trade unions for the immediate struggle. It has also inspired them with a revolutionary goal. And above all, it has given them a living connection with the revolutionary labor unionists of the entire world thru the Red International of Labor Unions, of which the T.