Marxists’ Internet Archive: ETOL Home Page: Trotskyist Writers Section: Farrel Dobbs
Source: The Militant, Vol. V No. 24, 14 June 1941, p. 1.
Transcription & Mark-up: Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Minneapolis, June 10 – Farrell Dobbs’ speech to the membership meeting of the Drivers Union follows in part:
This is a fight to the death between Local 544 and Dan Tobin. Local 544’s leaders have the guts to fight the employers, which is a lot more than Tobin can say.
Tobin has a grudge against this union. His grudge is that the leaders of Local 544 are not yes-men, whom he can kick around as he pleases.
In Daniel J. Tobin’s eyes, this union is guilty of four great crimes.
Our first crime is that we believe in fighting the bosses all the way. Tobin doesn’t believe in this. I hope you all read the little editorial on the inside front cover of the June issue of Tobin’s personal organ, wherein he states:
“Business agents and salaried officers of unions are going to be held mainly responsible by the state and federal governments for the actions of their members as time goes on. In most instances paid representatives of local unions are in a position to stop trouble. In some few instances they are not strong enough to stop the rank and file, but in those instances where they fail or where they are unable to protect the rank and file from themselves, they should notify the International Office of such failure.”
Translated out of Tobin’s language into English, that paragraph is a warning and a threat to every official of every IBT local that Tobin doesn’t want the drivers asking for higher wages, he doesn’t want any trouble, he doesn’t want any strikes, he doesn’t want to pay out any money for strike benefits. And God help any business agent or officer who can’t hold down the drivers and get them to lie down. If they can’t do it, Tobin will have their scalps. That’s what Tobin is saying in his editorial.
Local 544’s second crime in Tobin’s eyes is that the delegates from this union to the last convention of the IBT – Tobin permits a convention once every five years – voted against his proposal that he be given dictatorial powers to force arbitration upon any affiliated local. One of the delegates to take the floor against this reactionary program was Miles
Dunne, who made such an effective speech it took Tobin half an hour to get the convention to order. Brother, Dunne was not the only unionist at the convention to blast Tobin’s program; delegates from the East and West Coasts spoke against it. By agreement with other progressive delegates, Miles Dunne made his talk; together, the convention was able to deal Tobin a stiff defeat, something unheard of at IBT conventions.
Local 544’s third crime, according to Tobin, is that representatives of this union took the lead in organizing the over-the-road drivers and achieving the 11-state area contract. In this drive, about two hundred thousand new members were brought into the IBT. Tobin fought against this successful campaign from the start. He tried to disrupt our drivers’ council that launched the over-the-road campaign. Once the successful fight was over, Tobin immediately clamped down and began to expel or push aside all those whom he couldn’t absolutely control and integrate into his machine.
Our fourth crime is that the Local 544 delegation voted against Tobin’s request to raise his annual salary $10,000 to $30,000 a year. We figured that Tobin ought to be able to skimp along on $20,000 a year – and that if he couldn’t he ought to turn his case over to 544’s Federal Workers Section and ask for supplemental aid from the relief officials.
There stands Tobin with his $30,000 sack of dough over his shoulder, almost tipping him over backward, holding up his hand to the drivers, and howling “Don’t strike, boys. I got mine.”
Those are the four points that are the real issues in this fight. This is a fight over trade union policy, and charges of radicalism have nothing to do with it.
Radicalism? Why, Tobin hired me on May 1, 1939, to be an international organizer. Tobin knew what I was then. He knew my ideas and beliefs. He knew them even better when I resigned as international organizer a year later. At that time, he talked with me several hours, asking me to reconsider my decision. He advised me to keep my paid-up card in the IBT and said I could always return as an international organizer. Well, I have returned. I am back. I am back not to serve Tobin, but to help you fight him.
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Last updated: 2 February 2019