The Daily Worker

ON SIGMAN TO CHICAGO
New York I. L. G. W. Talk General Strike

NEW YORK CITY, July 24.-Chicago members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union will be urged to join in the demand for the resignation of President Morris Sigman, when members of the Joint Committee of Action of Locals 2, 9 and 22, of New York address a mass meeting in the Workers' Lyceum, 2733 Hirsch Boulevard, on Saturday afternoon.

Louis Hyman, chairman of the Joint Committee of Action, and C. S. Zimmerman, its secretary, will tell of the suspension, trial and expulsion of the Executive Committees of Locals 2, 9 and 22; the raids on Locals 2 and 9; the beating up of pickets by representatives of the Joint Board, and the way in which workers are being discharged because of their sympathy with the suspended locals.

Sigman Machine Must Go.

"We are coming to Chicago," says Mr. Hyman, before leaving today for Cleveland, "to let our members know the true causes of this fight, and just what has happened since we were suspended on June 11. When they learn the truth, I am certain they will all join with us in our fight against our corrupt officials and their powerful political machine, and will back us in the demand that not only President Sigman, but Vice-Presidents Perlstein and Feinberg and all their henchmen must go.

"We shall ask the workers to help with the defense fund that will enable us to continue this fight to a finish; and we shall call on them to denounce not only the action of the New York Joint Board, but the policy

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CARRY
FIGHT
ON
SIGMAN
TO CHICAGO
(Continued from page 1)
of the officials of the International.
Not Merely a Local Matter.
"This quarrel is not a local matter;
it is a fight for control of our
25.
union by the rank and file which has
R
been going on all over the country
for years.
ot
With the Chicago members behind us we shall be certain of
victory."

Sigman Seeks Support Only From the
Police, Bosses and Gangsters.

Not a day passes in the struggle of
the cloak and dress makers in which
there are not important incidents.
On the one hand there is still on
the order of the day the report of the
governor's commission. It appears
that on this report not only the workers are gagging, but also the contractors. On the other hand, there are
continually new developments in the
struggle against the corrupt machine
of the union, which becomes sharper
every day.
to
Regardless of the fact that the Sig-
man machine has settled for itself the
question of the recommendation of
the governor's commission, regardless
of the fact that this machine has also
carried thru the fake referendum, the
question is far from settled. If Sigman and his machine can satisfy
themselves with the "favors" of the
commission, the cloakmakers have
shown they will not be able to swallow them.

General Strike in Offing.

The sentiment for a general strike
is spreading and it is clear that if
this sentiment should reach a little
further, a strike will surely break out.
It is also certain that if a strike will
break out from the mass itself, then
that strike will surely wipe out the
official rule of the Sigman machine
from the union. And such a strike
will also have the necessary power
to dictate new working conditions for
the cloakmakers.

The cloakmakers are not the only
ones who cannot swallow the "favors"
of the governor's commission. Those
favors are also choking the contractors. Tuesday evening the contractors' association had a stormy meeting on the question of whether they
should accept the decision of the commission.

According to that decision the contractors also have received blows
against their interests. The jobbers,
who are the big capitalists, have won
everything. The main demands of
the contractors, as, for instance, the
establishment of a standard cost of
labor, were rejected.

The meeting of the contractors decided therefore, to send out the decision of the governor's commission
to a referendum vote.

Arrests, Fights, and Other Incidents.

Seven workers were arrested Tuesday morning near the shop of Metch-
es and Herbert, 164 W. 25th St. This
firm attempted to test the power of
the Joint Action Committee of the
suspended locals, demanding of the
workers in the shop that they should
obey the orders of the Sigman-Feinberg machine. The workers declined. The bosses attempted to discharge all who refused, saying they
wanted to see who is who.

The workers thereupon showed
whom they stand with. Of the 30
workers, only a few cutters remained
scabbing in the shop. All others
went out on strike and picketed the
shop.

Sigman's Backers a Fine Lot.

And so the Sigman machine concentrated on this shop all its strength.
And what does it consist of? Police, gangsters, paid strong-arm men.
Seven pickets were arrested near the
shop, but no dressmakers came to
work. The arrested are Sasha Zimmerman, secretary of the Joint Action Committee who works at that
shop, Abraham Lupin, Kove, Greenberg, Anna Solomon, Emma Cohn,
and another girl. All were released
on bail pending trial Thursday.

In the court yesterday also was the
trial of the two gangsters who attacked George Stupekevich Tuesday.
At the hearing in the court it was
shown that the gangsters are not even
formally cloakmakers. They declared that they were chauffeurs. But
when they were asked for their licenses they said they didn't have
them.

Gangsters' Trial Postponed.

The lawyer of the machine-gangsters demanded of the court that they
should be fined for disorderly conduct
and the case dropped. But the lawyer for the Joint Action Committee
said no, that to this proposition he
could not agree. He demanded a trial
because if not the gangs will be at
their work again, and it is very undesirable that gangsters who do not
even have a formal relation with the
union should attack workers in the
streets. The judge postponed the
trial to the 5th of August. In the
meantime, he ordered an investigation of the records of the two Sigman servants.
10
The supposed enemy of Communism and lover of scabbing, Mr. Feinberg, manager of the Sigman Joint
Board, has sent a letter to the bosses
requesting their active assistance. He
requested in this letter that the bosses should not permit in their shops
representatives of the workers who
do not show credentials from the machine.