Written: February 1932.
Source: The Militant, Vol. V No. 7 (Whole No. 103), 13 February 1932, p. 4.
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Some comrades who have contributed money to the General Defense Committee of the I.W.W. to help in the defense of the Kentucky miners – as the Militant suggested a number of times – have called attention to the statement in the Industrial Worked of February 2 to the effect that “the Trotskyites have never donated a single penny for the relief or defense of the Kentucky miners”, and the profound conclusion: “Classify the Trotskyites with the other traitors who have sabotaged the Kentucky miners.” We can only attribute the indignation of the comrades in question to inexperience. If you have any dealings with the I.W.W. you have to get used to playful remarks of this kind and not take them too seriously. It is just the I.W.W. way of writing out receipts.
What is more important to notice is the approach of the Industrial Worker to the serious defeats suffered by the working class in the convictions of Jones and Hightower. In these defeats, there is revealed a deplorable weakness of the labor movement. This should be the point of analysis and discussion by every militant who considers things from the standpoint of the class and its armament for future battles. But the Industrial Worker – if one is to judge by its extended comments on February 2 – has not considered this side of the question. That is why its comments are so barren, so permeated with petty factional recrimination and so devoid of any proposals for the future organization of the class fight in such a way as to make good the defeats.
Last updated on: 27.4.2013