Labor and Civil Liberties

...Dozens of other bits of evidence could be culled to show labor's overall delinquency in the field of civil liberties: failure to object strenuously to even the most flagrant abuses of Congressional investigating committees...

...If you move, you must let us know in order to keep getting your copies...

...the general failure to protest the cynical persecutions of controversial figures—including many labor leaders who had the misfortune to dwell beyond the pale of "respectable" unionism...

...Two leaders in workers' education, Benjamin Segal and Harry Fleishman, have since managed to obtain exclusive and complete data on the 750 rank-and-file union members, 687 wives of union members, and 107 local union presidents included among the 6,500 persons interviewed—data not broken down as such in the book...

...Recently, Meany made a speech, widely heralded in the labor press, that contained some significant clues to his outlook...

...Innocent until proven guilty!—M.A.] This Department of Justice list of subversive organizations is used in the government loyalty check-ups...

...Leaders of the most intolerant groups—e.g., American Legion and Daughters of the American Revolution—were more tolerant than the rank-and-file members of supposedly more libertarian groups—including organized labor...

...The manager of the center, in justifying his action, said: "The guys whose nickels and dimes built this place have been raising hell...

...Then clip and save it for future reference...

...67 per cent said a book written by him should be removed from the public library...

...The contrast between the relatively strong stand taken on the "race, creed, color or national origin" side of the liberty coin and the regression on the free-expression side is disturbing to say the least...

...He delivered a "slashing attack" (as the AFL-CIO News put it) on "liberals" who use less vitriolic language in excoriating the Communists...

...Yet its official weekly publication, The Machinist, in its May 21, 1953 issue, carried an elegant two-page spread devoted to the Attorney General's latest list of "subversive" organizations —with this introductory endorsement: "Read over the lists of organizations on these two pages carefully...

...The words of labor leaders, therefore, may be expected to carry a somewhat greater impact than before...

...How do they square with actual instances of labor's activities in the field of civil liberties...

...The old CIO itself, before its conservative drift which brought it to the point, before the merger, where it could hardly be distinguished from its AFL big brother, took some commendable stands...

...This despite the fact that the survey was made in the summer of 1954, the time of the Army-McCarthy hearings...

...Even among union presidents with a high school education or more—the highest classification in the sample— though a slim majority were on the tolerant side on the book question and a more solid one on the speaking question, 65 per cent would not allow an atheist to teach at a college...

...Less than one per cent of the union members mentioned either of these as matters that concerned them most...

...Indeed, when a labor group does on occasion take a strong stand on a crucial civil liberties issue today, this is likely to be regarded in some quarters as prima facie evidence of Communist domination or infiltration...

...They published a good part of this material in July 1955 in a series of articles in Labor's Daily, a newspaper sponsored by the International Typographical Union...

...It is a good reference any time someone asks you to join an organization you think might be subversive...

...The local press carried a routine story on the meeting, giving time and place...

...ALL THIS is not to say that organized labor has done nothing to advance basic freedoms in this country...

...An incident of which I have first-hand knowledge is perhaps typical and certainly revealing...

...Why many unions have a spotty and in some cases bad record on this problem could well be the subject for a fuller analysis...

...As president of the sixteen-million-member AFL-CIO George Meany is certainly a potent personality...

...Among union presidents, as among other community leaders, the proportion was a little higher—five per cent...

...The union officials could hardly have been expected to withstand the pressure and allow the meeting to proceed, even if they had wanted to...

...There are a couple of broad statements pledging to "protect and strengthen our democratic institutions," and no more...

...they are available in book form (Communism, Conformity and Civil Liberties, by Samuel Stouffer...

...Among rank-and-file unionists, from 46 to 59 per cent, depending on their level of education, would throw all avowed Communists in jail...

...THE RECENT MERGER Of the AFL and the CIO into what has been called the greatest labor federation in the history of the world has brought unionism into a new focus in the eyes of most Americans...

...All such inquiries will be promptly taken care of...

...At the right is a list of 62 groups Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr...

...For example: 77 per cent of those questioned would revoke the citizenship of an admitted Communist...

...The general findings of the study make highly illuminating reading...

...One thing came clear through the statistics: What was feared was not the espionage aspect of Communism (which would have been understandable) but the ideas and teachings of Communism...

...Below are listed 192 organizations which the U.S...

...Though they did not seem to be worried about civil liberties, the majority of those who were polled gave answers that should make genuine civil libertarians worry plenty about them...

...Today, after some of its own members have been victimized, it has joined with other newly-enlightened labor groups in condemning certain aspects of the government's loyalty-security program...

...Giving alarming evidence that he was at least implicitly condoning the means (there has never been any doubt of his approval of the ends) of a McCarthy, Meany said: "I know of nothing more positive and constructive than a total struggle against [Communism] in the body of modern society...

...recently announced will be added to the larger list unless they can prove they are not subversive...

...Look over the list carefully...

...But his rise poses serious questions as to the role the unions will play when it comes to rights that do not affect labor directly...

...Among the union presidents, to be sure, a substantial majority were against jail—but an equally convincing majority were for deprivation of citizenship...

...The fact remains that the voice that is speaking for labor today is that of George Meany...

...here I have tried only to present a few disquieting facts...

...Moreover, the AFL-CIO constitution, justly acclaimed for its forthright stands on many matters of social concern, has little to say about civil liberties...

...LEST IT BE imagined that only Communists aroused such intolerance, here are a few further statistics: 64 per cent of rank-and-file unionists who did not graduate from high school said that a person who is "against all churches and religion" should not be allowed to make a speech in the community...

...But perhaps this same Machinists union has had a change of heart...

...the rather hypocritical position of most unions on the anti-civil libertarian non-Communist oath provision of Taft-Hartley...

...It might be expected that men like Walter Reuther and others of the former CIO, plus a handful of the more enlightened leaders of the old AFL, would recognize the dangers in this trend and exert their influence for more political balance in the labor federation...

...Of 14 categories of leaders, union presidents ranked eleventh in their readiness to tolerate civil liberties for Communists and other deviants...

...Perhaps such a process is going on...

...Some of the larger international unions have a civil liberties record with some bright spots—the United Automobile Workers, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the Hotel and Restaurant Employees, the Interna tional Union of Electrical Workers, the Machinists, even the ultra-conservativeled Teamsters and Steelworkers...

...Later it was claimed that the very fact the hall was rented to the group in the first place was due to a misunderstanding of the nature of the meeting...

...Of his sincerity there can be no question...

...Attorney General's office recently designated, after the most careful investigation, as subversive...

...In comparative ratings among the community leaders themselves, the union group made its most desolate showing...

...It is easy to say that labor's dereliction on so basic a matter as civil liberties is rooted in its lack of a social ideology or goal...

...Sad figures...

...Some of today's labor leaders, and a good number of unions, have spoken vigorously for the right to deviate from pre-cut patterns of political and economic thought...

...Here, the record is not clear as to whether Meany said "anti-McCarthyism" or simply "McCarthyism," but it is a semantic curiosity that in this context his meaning would appear to be the same in either case.] They must shun like the plague the role of being anti-anti-Communist...

...Another example: The International Association of Machinists is unquestionably one of the better led and generally more enlightened unions...

...Union members in almost all cases come very close to the norm established for all classes of citizens—a little more tolerant of socialists, a little less tolerant of atheists...

...He has strong convictions and expresses himself forcefully if not always fluently...

...The United Packinghouse Workers, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen and, as certainly should be expected, the American Newspaper Guild and the American Federation of Teachers have spoken out more or less consissently for freedom of information and expression...

...The speech bristled with the standard polemic against Communism, but this time Meany added a note which at least had not been very prominent before...

...Here there is no doubt as to the number of antis Meany used...

...Liberals must be on guard against developing a certain type of anti-McCarthyism of their own...

...A nice foursome for anybody's afternoon bridge game...

...A significant aspect of the study is the conclusive showing that on all questions of civil liberties, community leaders were more liberal than the population at large...

...the lack of strong reaction to such baneful phenomena as loyalty oaths, denial of passports, the army's shocking policy on "undesirable" discharges...

...only Federated Women's Club presidents, DAR regents and Legion post commanders trailed them, in that order...

...These unions can be expected to cease their protests and drop back into character, however, as soon as what they see as certain kinks in the program have been ironed out...

...An organization professing to be concerned with civil liberties, but unquestionably with Communist leanings, had engaged a hall in the leading labor center in a city of a halfmillion, for a meeting at which a Puerto Rican Smith Act defendant and avowed Communist was to speak...

...There is no way of remedying this fault, or of inquiring into its cause, unless such subscribers write us giving name and address...

...But while there are worthy exceptions, the problem remains: the facile assumption that the labor movement is necessarily or inevitably a defender of civil liberties is open to challenge on empirical grounds...

...Some time ago the Fund for the Republic sponsored a poll to discover how Americans felt about "Communism, conformity and civil liberties...

...How else explain the al most equal intolerance of atheists, socialists and other radicals...

...So MUCH for statistics...

...We have found that sometimes such complaints are due to the fact that subscribers fail to inform us of a change of address...

...But whatever the explanation or the remedy, I think this is a matter that merits further discussion in the pages of this journal...

...At least one of the labor leaders involved felt that the meeting should have been permitted but, typically, he added that he could express this opinion only in the strictest privacy...

...But Reuther and his followers have, temporarily at least, taken a back seat in the union omnibus...

...it is possible that with the growth of "business unionism" and the increasing absorption of the union movement into the structure of corporate society, there will be even less opportunity for those unionists who are concerned with more than immediate bread-and-butter issues...

...The point is that the clamor for suppression was, if not overwhelming, at least unchallenged by any significant opposing voices...

...Among those with a high school education or more, 53 per cent would allow him to speak, 54 per cent would retain his book, but 73 per cent still would not permit him to teach...

...The samplers found that the average trade unionist, like the average American, worries little about either Communism or civil liberties...

...A few of them—far too few—have been among the civil liberties pioneers...

...51 per cent would put him in jail merely because he is a Communist...

...Between 78 and 83 per cent, again depending on past schooling, would revoke a Communist's citizenship...

...89 per cent would not permit him to teach in a college...

...But surely union members, with their heritage of militant liberalism, present a more encouraging picture...

...As might have been expected, messages of irate protest immediately began pouring in (at least it was claimed the protests reached "pouring" proportions) on officials of the center...

...As with atheists, so with socialists and assorted other varieties of radicals and noncomformists...

...NOTICE:—Word has occasionally reached us that some subscribers have not received their copies of DISSENT...

...Second class mail is not forwarded...

...Half a day before the meeting was to have taken place, the hall was withdrawn and the meeting had to be cancelled...

...Know what you join...