Printed below is an excerpt from Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for November. It is the story of the 1934 Teamster organizing drive in Minneapolis. Through hard-fought strikes, rank-and-file workers defeated the trucking bosses and the strikebreaking efforts of the employers’ "Citizens Alliance," who were aided by the city, state, and federal governments. Farrell Dobbs, who emerged from the ranks as part of the class-struggle leadership of the strikes, describes how a fighting industrial union movement was built in Minnesota, helping to pave the way for the rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Copyright © 1972 by Pathfinder Press, reprinted by permission. Subheadings are by the Militant.

BY FARRELL DOBBS  
General Drivers Local 574, through which the Communist League launched its trade-union campaign, bore the stamp of business unionism. The concepts involved had been imprinted upon the American Federation of Labor by Samuel Gompers, the founding leader. When Gompers died in 1924 he was succeeded in the AFL presidency by William Green who continued the founder’s policies. Business unionism was designed to win acceptance in ruling-class circles by practicing class collaboration. Toward that end AFL officials sought to conduct themselves as "labor statesmen."

Ignoring the great bulk of the nation’s workers, who were left to shift for themselves as best they could, the AFL moguls focused on the organization of narrow, privileged craft unions. These were based on various strata of skilled workers. As the better paid component of the working class, their outlook could most readily be warped to the concepts of business unionism. This objective was implemented by setting up little job trusts, through closed-shop contracts with employers, under which only members of the given craft union were hired. AFL officials anxious to get ahead in the movement were taught to accredit complete sanctity to these contracts. Strict control over strikes was maintained and one craft often scabbed on another.

Thus oriented, with their faces turned firmly to the past, the AFL officials presided over a steady decline in national membership strength as the social crisis of the 1930s gathered momentum.  
 
Workers drawn toward existing unions
On balance, there was little more in Local 574 than an IBT [International Brotherhood of Teamsters] charter with which to begin an organizing campaign. However, this in itself was of paramount importance. Workers becoming newly unionized tend to gravitate toward the official labor movement, no matter what its condition may be at the time. In Minneapolis the AFL was the dominant labor organization and Local 574 was affiliated with it. Any attempt to bypass the AFL and set up an independent union would have been self-defeating. The AFL officialdom would automatically oppose such a step by taking counter measures to draw workers into the existing union structure. Confusion and division would result from which only the bosses could benefit.

By putting a reverse twist on the "general" jurisdiction, it would be possible to derive some advantage from the nature of Local 574’s charter. A successful organizing drive could flood the local with new members from all parts of the industry. Before [Teamsters International president Daniel] Tobin could get around to cutting them up into subcrafts, a situation could develop that was beyond his power to control. Such potential was inherent in the trucking industry because it was strategic to the whole economic complex in a commercial city like Minneapolis. This factor made the truck drivers the most powerful body of workers in the town. Their power was further enhanced by the fact that it was difficult to use strikebreakers, since the trucks had to operate on the streets.

To get started in this promising situation two steps were necessary: first, Local 574 had to be induced to accept new members beyond its existing job-trust circle; then a drive could be launched to organize the mass of unorganized workers in the industry and open a struggle for union recognition.  
 
Communist League in Minneapolis
The leaders of the Communist League in Minneapolis approached these tasks with a well-thought-out conception of the dynamics of the class struggle based on a study of the interrelationship between the situation’s positive and negative features. Workers were radicalizing under the goad of economic depression. To mobilize them for action it was necessary to start from their existing level of understanding. In the course of battle a majority could be convinced of the correctness of the Communist League’s trade-union policy. They would come to understand that misleadership within the AFL was largely responsible for the fact that not a single strike had been won by any union in the city during the previous decade. To drive the point home it was imperative to show in the opening clash with the bosses that a strike could be won.

The key to all this was the infusion of politically class-conscious leadership into the union through the cadres of the Communist League. Of course, they could not assume immediate leadership of the union. Their role as leaders would have to develop and be certified through the forthcoming struggles against the employers. To facilitate that objective it was necessary that all party members in the city understand and support the projected Teamster campaign. Toward that end the whole concept was thoroughly discussed in the party branch and firm agreement was reached on the steps to be taken.

Wiseacres of the day spoke pontifically about the "passivity" of the working class, never understanding that the seeming docility of the workers at a given time is a relative thing. If workers are more or less holding their own in daily life and expecting that they can get ahead slowly, they won’t tend to radicalize. Things are different when they are losing ground and the future looks precarious to them. Then a change begins to occur in their attitude, which is not always immediately apparent. The tinder of discontent begins to pile up. Any spark can light it, and once lit, the fire can spread rapidly.

In Minneapolis the flames were bound to become widespread because it was not only the coal workers who were being driven toward action to correct an increasingly intolerable situation. Conditions were bad throughout the entire trucking industry. Wages were as low as ten dollars and rarely above eighteen dollars for a workweek ranging from fifty-four to ninety hours.  
 
 
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