Page:William Zebulon Foster - Strike Strategy (1926).pdf/30

 its control of the union to dampen the fighting spirit of the workers and to sell them out over the conference table. Hence, the policy of the left wing in strikes of organized unions must be to spur on the masses to fight and, by mobilizing them against the reactionary leadership, prevent the latter from betraying them in the settlement.

This policy proved successful in Illinois during the 1922 national strike of the bituminous miners. The union was in a desperate struggle, fighting for a national agreement. And just at the most critical moment, when its very life was at stake, President Farrington of the Illinois union, who has since gone openly into the service of the mine operators, declared that he would make a state agreement for the Illinois miners.

If he had been able to accomplish this it would have broken the strike. But the left wing, by holding a series of mass meetings of strikers throughout the state, so aroused the membership that Farrington could not go through with his betrayal. This saved the entire union from disaster. What would have happened had the left wing in the Illinois miners been afflicted with the "cannot fight on two fronts" theory?

The recent strike of the New York Furriers was another instance of a successful mobilization of the membership by the left leadership to balk a menacing right wing treachery. The local Joint Board which actually conducted the strike was in the hands of the left wing led by Ben Gold. But the machinery of the International was controlled by the right wing. All through the strike the fight was sabotaged by the head of the International, Schactman. Finally, believing his opportunity had arrived to deal a decisive blow, he, in close combination with Presi-