International Labor in a World at War
Schevenels, Walter
International Labor in a World at War By Walter Schevenels General Secretary IFTU ONDON—The other day my friend Julius *-* Brauntbal walked into my office aad cased with great surprise at a...
...Something over a year later it served its millionth guest...
...The two latest affiliates are the Mexican Workers' Confederation with 520,000 members and the American Federation of Labor, which is nearing six million members...
...There are more than 3,000 professional actors, members of the Associated Actons and Artists .of America, of whom we not only know by name, but where they are., There are half as many again whose names w e know, hut of whose whereabouts we are uncertain...
...And then there is Finland, with over 100,0Q0 members, whose existence and position today are' a matter for doubt...
...For all these reasons we feel entitled to ssy that though we have tost some of our material and financial power, the I.F.T.U...
...With pleasure...
...i In Africa we have the Joint Nations...
...600,000 in Belgium, 13,000 in Luxembourg, and our Inst leas was France, which had five million members in 1937...
...We have worked on these things lofesthoi, along with the managerial interests, the agents, the writers and other groups...
...However, ?mLj a marked revival of Trade Unionism Ufa simultaneously, a strong tendency to Ts3 Union concentration...
...has not yet the character of S eastes authoritative body...
...In the past it has rightiy been said that the LF.T.U, in spite ef'Jta^ipghVtional name, was mainly a European body, and its lenders were quite aware of this weakness...
...has lost most of its affiliates since the Nazi* occupation of Europe and that it has become more or less an International Committee of refugees...
...Before thsfwer # had relations with some Egyptian Truss Unions, although there was not the s w |S able nations...
...The figures that I have given and may give are those of performers, because they are the ones I know...
...But I have, I hope, indicated to you chat the actors are not sitting out this wntv THE IFTU AT WORK DEFORE the war IFTU stood as the symbol for the mighty orj.mzation of world free labor...
...It is Chinese," I replied...
...As soon as these newly eresasl National Trade Union Federations hnve «5 solidated their organisations, the time *8i hssp come to admit them to the International Pedsh*, tion...
...The expenses of these productions have been shared by the American Theatre Wing and the plants visited...
...International Labor in a World at War By Walter Schevenels General Secretary IFTU ONDON—The other day my friend Julius *-* Brauntbal walked into my office aad cased with great surprise at a silk embroidery, two feet by three, hanging on the wall behind me...
...If tide happens, the United States of America will be abb to speak on behalf of between 12 and IS million organized workers and Mexico will, without great difficulty, easily surpass the one million mark...
...It does not even count the attendance at the 1,600 performances given by 40 companies on the Army's Blue Circuit, because the Blue Circuit goes to smaller camps and posts from which attendance figures are not returned...
...The LfLtS has already established contacts with isnsttt* these countries...
...To staff the Canteen 350 work in daily shifts of 50 in the kitchen...
...As for the other Latin-American countries, it most be said that Trade Unionism has been very weak indeed in the pest Until a, few years ago they had not yet got beyond the first phase, through which the workers' organhMrttons of Great Britain bed already passed by the first half of the 19th century end those of the other Western European countries by the second half Trade Union activities to Latin-Andwiea...
...Another old member is Argentine with dose on 300,000 members...
...of the moral and material inheritance of the Trade Unions of the enslaved countries...
...As s matter of fact, I should think that, except perhaps for the small number of persons in close contact with the LF.T.U., the great majority of the general public believes that the LF.T.U...
...Thai is the provision of entertainment to workers in f a c t o r ^ connected with the war effort I t is one of the many activities of the American Theatre Wing fojf War Service, of which I shall discuss later^^hie Lunchtime Follies is little mors than an experiment as yet but all the -evidence indicates that it is a successful osiisi iejsel HjftntfjW|1il to be expanded...
...I don't think I have much to tell you about the British T.U.C Their membership is now well owes five million sad the circumstances of the way have made them the most important factor in the present activities of the LF.T.U...
...Our International Federation has affiliates in the five cssstuwmto of the world, and their membership is not just s symbolic gesture...
...these exiled Trade Union leaders speak and act oh behalf of the millions of silent but actively resisting members of their respective countries...
...Before the war we had 25 National Trade Union Federations affiliated with 19 million members...
...Sweden and Switzerland, with respectively 14500,000 and 220,000 members, hnve maintained Jpntact with the LF.T.U...
...has lost the greater number of its European affiliated National Federations since Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany, Austria and the other enslaved countries have physicaLy destroyed our unions...
...Whtti formidable force the organized • uihsawof tag world would represent...
...At present "TYsdJ^sLJ ism to gaining a more solid basis and s pressa ing future hi Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, OrX guay, Brsxl, Peru, Puerto Rico, Haiti, ItojusV lica Dominicans...
...World-wide AfSliaftont "S*AN you tell me n little more shout the ^present organization of the I.F.T.U., its affiliated National Federations and the prospects of - further expansion of its world-wide activities...
...In Oceania, Traders*** htm originated from the European setHfes,' la> structure, methods and aims, as wed as traditions, are largely similar to those el Chest Britain and Western Europe...
...Their activities, instead of being open ahd legal, have now been driven underground...
...The Nazis have physically destroyed our organisations in the .occupied countries, but they were unable to destroy *Jie spirit of our movement - As a matter of fact, there is ample evidence that flbr movement is still alive and feared by Hitler...
...As you, know, we have established here in Great Britain National Groups for each of the enslaved countries, and together with the I.F.T.U...
...The Australian Trsd* Use* Council, Which represents roughly ssjs^ssBsfe members...
...The message means: "Greetings from the Chinese Association of Labor to the International Federation of Trade Unions,' end the slogan embroidered on the centre of the silk means in substance: 'International solidarity and the united efforts of the workers of the world will emancipate Labor...
...whs 200,000 members...
...This is where you sre mistaken...
...What does it mean...
...In the Americas our oldest affiliate is the Canadian Trades and Labor Congress wnn approximately 170,000 members...
...but, so far as the European Trade Union movement is concerned, we consider ourselves the legitimate spokesmen of the millions of Trade Unionists who remained faithful...
...Service men from all over the world head for this canteen as soon as they hit New York and it provided the theme of the hit-song for "This Is the Army...
...It was opened for the men of all the services on March 2, 1942...
...The exchange of hj|gfii|l and international information • interesting^* JLabor has always been continned, and up to tiie present time they have found ways end means of fulfilling their financial obligstions towards the LF.T.U...
...So much for the Americas...
...be asked...
...Many persons of the stage, screen aad radio, make more than case appearance Sot these, .in the aggregate, provide the gift of 26,400 performances over a year's time...
...As yee>*mSm} Africa too .is awakening to Trade Uslssjim ssl is already aware of the necessity fortowrsationsl common action...
...the I.F.T.U...
...The Stage Door Canteens are run entirely by volunteer help...
...350,000 in Poland, 1,700,000 in Spain, half a million in Denmark, 380,000 in Norway, 320,000 in the Netherlands...
...When the government turned to actors for the, entertainment of its armed forces, the actors were not only ready for that call, but were impatient'that it had not come sooner...
...There sre now five other Stage Door Canteens scattered about the country...
...Since the war we have net ssi any further contact there...
...en* ww* Actors in War-Footlights Undimmed By BERT LYTELL President Acton Equity...
...We here ashed Welter Scheveness, reneral secretary of the IFTU, to describe the work of that greet federation to time of »sr...
...Nothing is farther off the mark," I replied...
...The first of five, end still the best known, is that in New York...
...Encouraged by their reception the Theatre Wing opened its Club for Merchant Seamen, on January 4, 1943...
...were also, until lately, more political than industrial When liberal and democratic forces came into, power the workers' organizations sprang up like mushrooms, but disappeared again quite as suddenly at each relapse tote dictatorship —countries until recent years...
...In round figures they call for 5,000 turns a year, with an average of three persons to a turn...
...It provides some of the entertainment features of the Canteen but it also has club features in that the men may read, play games and use it as headquarters during their stay in New York...
...Tnnidad ana *Jkj baggo, Nicaragua and Costa Rica...
...The other canteens together get about as many more...
...UTWAC, as it is commonly referred te, provides the entertainment programs of the Stage Door Canteen aad the Merchant Seamen's Club...
...This figure represents only performances in this country, and does not include the thousands who have been entertained by actors overseas, or the spot shows which are produced for one performance by companies or groups or individual performers occasionally and sporadically...
...A.F.L T H E acting profession, so weU adjusted to * the normal every-day needsi^o%s*ehfi sou u m ment-loving nation, has undergone a remarkable transformation in meeting the fun and entertainment demands of our tremendous armed services and the huge army of war workers...
...Jamaica...
...to our cause and our ideals...
...T H E War Production Training Committee, * organised to assist members of the entertainment industry to get into essential war work, or to undertake training which would fit them for it, had, to March 1, 1943, referred 206 for aptitude tests, 385 to training courses, 314 to employment a total of 905...
...And when the National Entertainment Industry Council, which was set up on Jury 14 and 15, is completely organised and functioning, we wili make even this record seem ssaesT by comparison...
...Today we have-13 National Trade Union Federations, not including the Refugee organizations in Greet Britain with an aggregate membership of 14% million " e . - . 0 •. • e *-*•">' ft...
...I f it had never done anything else the Theatre Wing would go down into grateful history for its organization of the Stage Door Canteens...
...In all, 2,460 performers have taken part is its productions, and this past season there were 85 units out Next season, I think, with a bigger budget from the United Service Organizations,'we will do even better...
...Early in the war the entertainment industry learned that it was going to have to answer . calls of all sorts from individuals, groups and organizations which wanted the free services of actors for benefit performances given for some phase of the wsr effort or for relief connected with i t Often these were highly imposing groups or were affiliated in some way with people or causes for which actors might feel they had to perform whether they felt like it or not • • • T O take the burden of deciding such matters * of the individual actors, the industry set up an organization known as United Theatrical War Activities, Inc., to clear such requests for all benefits tied in with the war, and to provide a talent pool to service such benefits and causes as were cleared...
...The questio|.|f mm ation has been earnestly considered i t renht years and can be reasonably anticipated h l | near future...
...Good, friendly ratifies) have been developing between them and JB LF.T.U...
...But the effort has been that of the entertainment industry as a whole...
...We claim to be the custodians...
...Let me give you two figures as a first illustration of this...
...It isn't possible to separate out what the actors of the legitimate theatre, or of motion pictures, or of radio have done...
...In the nrst place, there are the 13 ifffiatod Kational Trade Union C b i r r ' o s ^ h W e W l T ^ normally...
...Now that *fe greater part of this territory is liberated then unions are likely to resume their aetivMhn wttp soon, and we don't doubt that they wet hyafe join the I.F.T.U.- at once...
...I should also mention the smaller Federations which we lost by the road bil this .period of vicissitudes—Hungary, the four Balkan and the three Baltic countries, amounting altogether to a quarter of a million members...
...An average of eight acts a night play the Canteen, ranging from single performers to name bands and whole theatrical companies...
...has really become an international one...
...the International Federation ef Trade Unions, the march of fascist salutary power has destroyed the legal union offices, but the core ef the IFTU remains...
...J fnr »L t - | „ , . _ _ •* * esenmrs IW TOW > S I I IS T H E biggest future for the World Fedsratse * of Trade Unions, though still ssssh yssfJ off, undoubtedly lies in Asia, which seeews-ls* largely over a half of the world uupJliHss Present affiliates from this continent ail P*to> tine, with 135,000 members, and Chins...
...for many years...
...since 1939 and are paying their affiliation fees...
...It is a message from the Chinese Trade Unions, hand-embroidered by women members and sent from their headquarters in Chungking, China, to the International Federation of Trade Unions conference held in New York in October 1941...
...central body eligible for adfijesns to the LF.T.U...
...Just imagine these optimistic expadtotiw* becoming realities after the war...
...THIS past season the entertainment industry * has turned its attention to a phase of entertainment which has been more widely developed elsewhere than here, and notably in Great Britain and Russia and China, though our.enemies.have not overlooked its possibilities either...
...0 s » mittee of the South African Trade Unions, wife' 50,000 members, affiliated to the I.F.T.U...
...M*i r^R e . e * m...
...Is there a regularly constituted trade union movement in China, then...
...At present they have about 420,000 members in the free territory of China and, what is more, they have been officially affiliated to...
...On tiie otisw ht*i we took up new relations with the first aeekeS of Trade Unionism in Sierra Leone, thstahdroons...
...They manage from time to tipse, to tsjtoxpert in our decisions and to ssmfs oer^ssfrrharfoosl isapsnsibilities...
...My dear •n****f3 I must confess that the story of the L * T - " ' M its recent past its present, and neer*'swlto»#^ you have summarized it so vividly, is S rsv**B tion to me and certainly an agresefij^glpS' % am sure that many persons, sympatlnw»rs> sUs even a great number of Trade Unionis...
...Before the occupation of tto Dutch Indies this National Federation s f T « # Unions, with 32,000 members, wss else sfilnsw for some time with 180,000 members, set th» present political situation there has had a on> fusing effect upon the Trade Union Fiasualsl and we are not quite clear where sw-eJMsly Federation stands, although we hsve oecss*n> ally exchanged messages with its known lssiisn Before the war we also had rslsfisW Ug small Trade Unions in Syria and Ira* ahd ewe the National Centre in Ceylon...
...Relief Fund Drives, British, Creak, Russian and Chinese, the Red Cross, the United Service Organisations and others receive the gift of 1,009 personalities over a year's time...
...Today, the character of the LF.T.U...
...French North Africa we had 120,000 memtoSr before the collapse of France...
...Not only are there still 18 normally functioning National Federations affiliated to the I.F.T.U...
...London, "ftbvfeusiy^these two countries cannot always participate in the everyday activities and decisions of the LF.T.U...
...It was, then, the theatrical industry which negotiated an agreement with pie Army and Navy, in the fall of 1941, from which came Camp Shows, Inc., the one organisation recognized by the government as official purveyor of entertainment to the armed services of the United States...
...Forty ectoss gave only eight performances of this show, but these were so well received that i t is inevitable that the experiment will be repeated aad broadened to include the explanation of many .government policies to the people who must understand them and accept them before they een'Wome really effective...
...and I imagine that a great number of Labor people all over the world are not aware of it...
...They work in three hour shifts, for theirs is a strenuous job, and it is estimated that they have danced a total of 2,184,000 miles—and some odd feet...
...selves, are as ignorant of these fact...
...True, the I.F.T.U...
...What kind of a language is that...
...Certainly...
...headOU*rtm~fiW§^bout all these years, with only s short interruption when our headquarters were transferred from Paris to...
...g^Sr ;V In all of this I want to emphasise that what we did was done as a group...
...The Actors' Equity and the Chorue Equity*Association together have contributed more then a thousand of those men...
...About 300 men serve as hosts and bus boys...
...the Lake Chad territory, Norths* Xs» desia and the Belgian Congo...
...To this point it has sent out 55 productions, with 650 performers and has played to audiences of more then jbpJXO...
...Well," said friend Brauntbal, "that is a real surprise to me...
...On the contrary, it is the expression of a deep sense of international solidarity, a dear consciousness of the community of their interests and a firm willingness for close internstional collaboration...
...For more than a year and s half the actors' organizations had been arguing with the War Department and the Navy Department to let them get on with a job for which they were prepared...
...and in the chances for International Labor to exert a MStslMswhtA feflttence in all vital decisions rehwhjfitojpnnpingt lssnn.>ieiHns They are also by far the greatest financial contributors to the I.F.T.U...
...And now our women ere beginning to go, too...
...One of the real glories of the entertainment industry has been the American Theatre Wing for War Service and anyone who knew merely of its activities would never ask what the actors were doing in tile war...
...The New York Canteen has a daily attendance of 8,000, with a high water mark of 4.510 on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1942...
...81 420,000 members...
...and the hopes for the future...
...Since that time, and until approximately May 1 of this year, Camp Shows, Inc., presented 13,985 shows to an audience in excess of 13,800,000, in regular presentations in the 1,336 installations it now has...
...The SesTJeihsi Federation is affiliated to the I.F.T.E...
...sored by the Nazis VTOU m|ght think that after such enormous * losses nothing could be left to the LF.T.U...
...It is known that the developments hi the Trade Union Movement in these two letter countries have met with seme difficulties and that a satisfactory unification of the Trade Union Movement has not yet been achieved...
...300 members of the Senior Hostess Committee, the girls who circulate among the tables and dance with the service men, has about 2,200 registered, of whom about 1,400 serve each week...
...We lost two million affiliated members in Italy, over five million in Germany, 600,000 in Austria, over WO.gOQ in Czechoslovakia...
...Agencies such as the Treasury Department Office of War Information and Civilian Defense Volunteer Organizations get about twenty personalities a week from it, or 1.040 in a year...
...First of all, of course, there is the direct contribution they have made to tiie armed services...
...is, morally end even materially, not much weaker today, after more than three years of war, than it was in its good years between the two world wars...
...A "As I have just told you, the LF.T.U...
...A Speakers' Bureau has provided 2.387 appearances, speakers and sketches in support of causes which have been endorsed by the Theatre Wing and has made use in them of the services of 3,030 actors...
...Japanese or Chinese, perhaps...
...is still recognized today by all the peoples concerned as the international authority in the Tmde Union Movement There is one more thing which will have a great influence on the future development of the LF.T.U...
...Efforts hnve been made on several occasions and, although no positive results have been reached, there is an increasing hope that before the end Of the war, the divisions in the Labor Movement there will here been overcome...
...Aside from these steady customers UTWAC has become the talent agency for tile government...
...Another tentetive' experiment, which will also bear expenaton, was the production "It's Up to You," assembled for the United States Department of Agriculture to dramatize food conservation...
Vol. 26 • September 1943 • No. 36
