[in the last issue we described the workers" organisation both inside and out of the auto factories in Flint The workers had built an impregnable fortress against attack. The first G.M.'s first trick was to get one of their judges to issue an injunction forcing the strikers to leave the plant. After the county sheriff read the injunction, he was laughed out of the plant. When G.M, tried to get an ordar to have the strikers forcibly removed, an important fact was braught out which caused G.M.'s plans to backfire, It was discovered that the judge who issued the injunction, Edward Black, owned 3,665 shares of G.M. stock worth $219,000 An embarrassed G.M. was forced to forget this injunction and wait for things to cool off before seeking another. Of course, G.M. had other tricks up its sleeve. About this time a group calling themselves the Flint Allianon was formed. Supposedly it was workers who had been laid off because of the strike. They were "loyal'" to G.M. and they wanted to return to work:
In reality the Flint Alliance was composed of G.M. supervisors, and its function was strikebreaking and mobilising vigilante action against the strikers. G.M, was using this group to push a back-to-work movement, claiming that a minority of strikers was "dictating" to a majority of non-strikers. G.M, and its lackeys in the government and the press carried on their campaign of threats and lies against the workers. And when this failed, G.M. resorted to violerice.
On January 11th, as workers were bringing food into the Fisher Body No. 2 plant, a group of company guards appeared and overpowered them. They closed the gate and took down a ladder which was being used to hoist food up to the second floor. Then in 16-degree weather, the company turned the heat in the plant off. When this news reached union headquarters, hundreds of workers raced to the plant. When the company cops were overpowered they called the city cops, and then barricaded themselves in the plant's ladies room, claiming they had been kidnapped. This situation had been set up by G.M. so the cops would have an excuse to attack the workers.
WORKERS DEFEND STRIKE The cops soon arrived with their guns and gs. They attacked the outside pickets with gas but within fin minutes they were forced to retrest by streams of water from firehoses and two pound door hinges coming from inside the factory.
Then workers on the outside were gon empty bottles and hinges for the next attack. The cops hurled more gas and attacked again, and agam they were cresco ort, this time wit the outside pickets in hot pursuit. This time the cops opened fire on the unarmed workers, wounding 14. The workers continued to chase the cops, overturning the sheriff's car and chasing the cops up the hill, where they stayed.
The governor of Michigan, Frank Murphy, arrived in Flint and said that he was holding the National Guerd in readiness. G.M. hed hoped to provoke enough violence to justify calling in the National Guard. But for the time being, G.M.'s hired goons had been forced to retreat. The workers were victorious and the "Battle of Bulls Run" had ended with the "bulls" running.
But G,M. wasn't through by a long shot. Three thousand National Guardsmen were mobilised. Murphy was reluctant to use them against the workers because his political future was at stake. But you can be sure G.M. was putting the pressure on him. On January 13th two days later G.M. agreed to a truce. National bargining would begin on all eight demands. G.M. agreed to bargain solely with the UAW, Seventeen plants would remain closed until a settlement but the occupied plants were to be evacuated. The rank-and-file workers didn't like this because it was a truce and not a complete victory. Nevertheless the strikers prepared to leave the factories. But then came some news which changed all of this. Word reached the union that G.M. was planning to miser wi te rant A Pance to dIscuss representation and recognition of the Alliance by the company. This was a complete violation of the agreement with the UAW. The strikers went back into the plants. G.M.'s double-cross had failed.
G.M. TAKES THE OFFENSIVE But now G.M. really went all out to break the strike. UAW headquarters in Anderson, Indiana, was smashod by vigilantes. Union organisers and pickets wore beaten up, Then G.M. opened the non-struck plants which it had closed. Finally, G.M. located a judge who would issue another injunction, ordering the strikers to evacuate the plants. G.M. had taken the offensive and the workers would have to come up with something company spies for the important part of his plan, He knew that there were spies among the 30 "most trusted" and that they would report the plan to take No. 9 to G.M. management.
This way most of the guards from Chevy No. 4 would be lured away leaving it to the workers.
The next day, February Ist, Travis called a meeting at the union hall supposedly to protest the court injunction hearings taking place that day. In the middle of the meeting he was handed a slip of paper and he told the people that the workers were getting beat up at No. 9 and suggested that they all go down there.
When they arrived at No. 9 the battle had already started. G.M. management had fallen into the trap and stationed almost all the company guards at No. 9. When the night shift came in yelling "strike" a fight immediately erupted. By 3.45 the fighting was really fierce and the plant manager from No. 4 ordered more company men from there over to No. 9 to help out. Meanwhile, at 3.30 Ed Cronk led a group of men fram Chery No. 6 to No. 4 but this was too small a force to shut it down, They returned to No. 6 and ran into about 150 other men who were shutting it down. With these reinforcements prepared to fight. Thousands of workers came the group went back to No. 4 which was practically unguarded. They turned off machinery and threatened and pleaded with reluctant workers to join the strike. The number of strikers increased rapidly and soon No. 4 was taken. The foremen were thrown out of the plant with these words which ware very familiar to the workers: We'll call you beck when we need you."
No. 4 was secured against attack on the inside and on the outside it was surrounded by the workers wives who dared the cops or anyone else to attack. No attack came and Chevy No. 4, the largest unit in G.M.'s empire, was taken. The workers were back on the offensive.
Murphy upped that National Guard force to 4,000 and had them surround No. 4 and Fischer Body No. 2 across the street. The strikers were cut off from the outside. Machine guns and 37mm howitzers were placed on the hill over. looking the plant. G.M. turned off the heat and then the lights but both times they were forced to turn them back on when the workers threatened to light fires. On February 3rd the National Guard lifted it food ban when the workers threatened to damage machinery. Under this kind of pressure G.M, agreed to reopen negotiations while the workers remained in the -plants.
In spite of this, tension portinued to increase. The sheriff read an injunction to the strikers ordering them to leave the plenits. When they refused he asked Governor Murphy for help in ousting them. He was still reluctant but copony pressure was cornery on nime even the AFL "labour leaders" sided with G.M. They demanded that the company reopen its plants so ineffectual that its scabbing against the UAW had about as nuch effect as a worm trying to stop a Mack truck.
By this time an impressive array of strike breakers was lined up against the workers. There were 4,000 National Guardsmen, 1,000 deputised vigilantes, the Flint Alliance and Flint cops, and the Michigan Sheriff's Association of 1,300 deputies. When the question of what to do in case of an all-out attack on the plants came up. the workers were unanimous in their decision. After fighting for so long and hard, surrendering was out of the question. The strikers were determined to hold the plants at all costs and "fight to the death" if need be. On February 2nd the strikers sent this wire to Murphy:
.. The palice of the city of Flint belong to General Motors. The sheriff of Genesee County belongs to General Motors.. It remains to be seen whether the Governor of the State also belongs to General Motors. Governor, we have decided to stay in the plant. We have no Husians about the sacrifices which this decision will entail."
Outside the plant the strikers were just as from all over Michigan to Flint to show their support and help in the struggle against G.M. And their wives were more than willing to fight alongside of them. They even carried out their own demonstration with their children in the heart of Flint.
This situation could not last too long; it was time for a showdown. Governor Murphy took the injunction order to John L. Lewis, telling him that he was ready to have the workers removed from the plant. Lewis replied that he would go to the plant and stand with the workers against the Guardsmen, But G.M.'s troops never moved, Thousands of workers and downers reedy to fight to the end forced G.M. to gy up on recruay in aer as days of G.M. signed a contract with the UAW recoynising them as the sole bargaining agent in the 20 struck plants and for all its members in the other plants. G.M. also agreed not to deal with any other group in these plants for six months. This gave the UAW more than enough time to organise these plants and gain sole bargaining rights in them too. All union mm members who had been fired were rehired, negotiations on wages and working conditions were to begin in five days. G.M, immediately raised wages 5 cents an hour. All the sit-downers approved this contract but they had no illusions about their victory. As one worker put it: What's the use of kidding ourselves. All that piece of paper means is that we got a union The rest depends on us!"
The workers were successful in the Flint Sit-down because of their determination, militancy and solidarity. The auto workers were forced to assume these attitudes in their struggle with G.M. They were forced by the real conditions of their lives to assume these attitudes. Don't think that workers in 1936 weren't told that they never had it better, that America was heaven on earth, that capitalists were one, big. happy American family. The auto workers in 1936 were told all this and more. But thair actual living conditions told a different story. The G.M. auto workers in 1936 either had to submit to the miserable living and working conditions imposed on them by the bosses, or fight to change them. They fought and won. But they won only a partial victory and it is up to the present members of the working class to finish the job.
Nowadays we read in the paper that we, the workers, are to blame for inflation. The government says that workers' wages are too high. At this time the government is just trying to persuade workers to keep their wage demands down. But it's only a matter of time till force is used to keep wages down. Since the choice is obvious we can use the Flint Sitdown strike as a good lesson. But the only real solution is to carry the lesson of Flint a step further. That is, capture the factories and hold on to them, for good. The capitalists have controlled them for long enough.
This and the previous article have been reproduced from back issues of an excellent American