The toiler. [volume], August 20, 1920, Image 1

About The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922

Image provided by: Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, OH

STATE
VERSiTY
The
No. 133.
TOILER
CLEVELAND, OHIO, FRIDAY, AUG. 20, 1920. Price Five Cents.
Workers' Shop Committees vs.
Bosses' Committees
The smartest among the capitalists who own
the industries are beginning to understand that
the time when they can act as czars and kaisers
in their factories is gone. They see that some
thing new is on the way that the workers are
going to have a voice in the management of the
shops and factories.
These capitalists have come to the con
clusion that their is no use trying to openly
fight the workers' movement toward industrial
democracy control of the shops by the work
ers and for the workers. But that does not mean
that they are going to give in and let the work
ers take control. Since in an open fight they
are hound to lose, they arc trying the trick of
seeming to give the workers what they want
without any fight. At the same time that they
seemingly are making their surrender, they
manage to trick the workers into maintaining
the same old system.
This is what the shop organizations and
shop committees which are being organized un
der the direction of the bosses mean. There are
now hundreds of industrial plants in which
the bosses have given the workers gome sort
a part in the management through committees
or some other organization within tho plant.
There are a number of concerns that have
houses representatives, senates and cabinets
organized within tne plant, all for the purpose
of making the workers believe that they really
have something to say in running the insti
tution. This "industrial democracy" which the
bosses hand the workers as a gift is a fraud. In
all such organizations there are strings tied
to the proposition or the thing is so organized
that the bosses are able to keep control.
The reason why the bosses can control
these organizations is clear. Usually when their
are elections they are "conducted under the
direction of the management of the shop. There
are enough willing tools of the bosses in every
shop so that a committee satisfactory to the
bosses can be elected. Furthermore, if aggres
sive workers are elected, they are usually
afraid to take any action contrary to the wishes
of the management. They know that they have
been elected by instructions from the bosses,
that the whole proposition came down from
above, and that there is no solidly organized
body of workers behind them, and consequently
they are afraid to take any independent action
for fear of losing their jobs.
In practically every instance where such
"industrial democracy" has been established
it has proven worse for the workers than if it
did not exist. By clever manipulation the bos
ses can always get these committees or other
organizations, which are under their thumbs,
to make rules which are harsher than those
the bosses could make on their own account,
and if their is complaint, the workers are told
that they themselves are responsible for these
rules.
The workers should boycott shop organizn
lid)i ;iml shop committees which the bosses offer
them as a gift. Such organizations only fasten
the chains of wage slavery tighter. They play
the bosses game and that is the reason they
are organized.
In place of this fraudulent "industrial de
mocracy" from above, tho workers must in
dependently create their own shop organiza
tions and shop committees. The first thing to
(Continued on pge 6.)