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294   THE COMMUNIST

UNEMPLOYMENT is also affecting the organized workers and the resistance of the rank and file within the American Federation of Labor against the reactionary fascist leadership is growing daily. To prevent the growth of dissatisfaction within the A. F. of L., and to prevent the militant action on the part of the unorganized millions of workers, the fascist Muste group is coming to the forefront as the savior of the A. F. of L. and the misleader of the workers. Of great interest in this respect is the recent Indianapolis and Springfield conventions of the United Mine Workers. The Springfield convention was a Peabody Coal Company convention in which it enlisted the services of the fake progressives like Howat, Brophy and Walker under the general leadership of the Muste group. Although the Springfield convention was called as a "rank and file" convention, the rank and file recognized the purpose of this gathering and correctly refused to participate in such a convention. The convention held during the same period in Indianapolis under the leadership of Lewis, had also as its main purpose to prepare the ground for the sell-out of the 150,000 anthracite miners and to make a desperate effort to retain some of the check-off of the Illinois miners. No one would ever believe that the Springfield convention intended to fight against the A. F. of L.  It is now already definite that the so-called "insurgents" at the Springfield convention and Fishwick will remain faithful to the A. F. of L. and the the coal operators. The National Miners Union will find a very favorable opportunity at the present time to build up a mass organization of fighting miners against the Lewis-Fishwick-Muste-Peabody Company Union.


THE present membership drive of the Trade Union Unity League for 50,000 new members by June 30 and the preparation for the Fifth Congress of the R.I.L.U. demand immediate mobilization of out entire party membership for this important work. The recruiting campaign of the Communist Party has proven that with proper mobilization this goal of the T.U.U.L. in which we are greatly interested could be achieved. Especially in the present period, the broadening of our activities and recruiting of thousands of workers into the T.U.U.L. is our major test. Although the T.U.U.L. since the last Cleveland Convention grew in influence and established itself among the American workers as their only leader and fighter in the economic field, yet in comparison with the possibilities offered in the present period, the Party has not done much to build the T.U.U.L. or to take our trade union work seriously. It is now our task to take definite measures to carry thru the R.I.L.U. decision concerning the new methods of work and the establishment