The Future of European Labor
STURMTHAL, ADOLF
The Future of European Labor By ADOLF STURMTHAL tvafamovND LABOR LOOKS AHEAD: A ,ptcial i**u* „f Po,(War FfMtwu AmwUrb *•?¦*•«• •/ '** American Conftrone* on International Affair, 9 Sae't Htm**!,...
...What are the ua*»eTf round organizations thinking...
...t • « However, one fact becomes clear: there are few, if any, labor groups that would not vote overwhelmingly in favor of liberal and democratic institutions...
...11 f ito w»y wiP EuroP« «o after the war...
...The slogan of "free enterprise" which most American la' r leaders accept, seems ridiculously inadequate in dealing with European affairs, the underground eiouns seem to think...
...Some American 'correspondents in France rteontty expressed their surprise at the fart that the maquisards aeemed to hold mat* hatred toward French collaboro-tionists then toward Germans...
...With Allied armies tearing down the walls of Hitlerite Germany, these questions are no longer of mere speculative interest...
...their answer will (ictarmine to a large extent the future of the Old World...
...But in such highly disputed questions, it is perhaps better to infer to the studies themselves, rather then to offer potential readers en easy way out through a detailed review...
...On the contrary, there is unanimous agreement among the authors that underground labor demands basic changes in the social structure of continental Europe...
...Everywhere en .he continent, there is a strong drive toward the unification of the trade-usion movement...
...The quea-tion also arises whether the advanced labor legislation which most of the authors expert, can be successfully enacted on a continent impoverished by war and dictatorship...
...I am inclined to believe that these are among the most impoitant issues of postwar labor in Europe...
...This does not imply the return pure and simple to the institutions of the pre-Hitler era...
...Treves' story deaerves to be carefully studied and will, I hope, toon be continued and br< Jght up to date...
...Adolf Sturmthal i* the author of Th* Tragrdy ef European Labor...
...The idea of exchanging one dictatorship for another does not seem to find many followers...
...Two special, but tremendously important, problems are well covered in the quarterly...
...Italy is perhaps just now setting a pattern for several European countries...
...Undoubtedly, the Communists, backed by the military prestige of the Soviet Union, will emerge as * tremendously powerful factor in European labor, Unfortunately, this problem is only discussed in pasting by some of the authors and what Abramovitch has to say on this score leaves the problem much where it was...
...Moreover, the better we understand the peculiar traits af Underground groupa and the psy-rholegy of their leaders and members, the bitter we shall be equipped to deal with Europe emerging from the night-aat« of Hitlerite oppression...
...Hedwif Wachenheim writes sbout the reorganization of German labor (carefully avoiding, however, any reference to the role of the Soviet Union), and Paolo Treves writes on the rise of the new Italian labor organizations...
...Will it be democratic or dictatorial, capitalistic, communistic or something in between...
...yAmerican Labor Conference on International Affairs has devoted , aplaf issue of its quarterly International Postwar Problems to some of thaw questions...
...Had they read Eugene Shreyder's study on the French underground in International Peetwar Problem*, they would have realised why this is so...
...The Future of European Labor By ADOLF STURMTHAL tvafamovND LABOR LOOKS AHEAD: A ,ptcial i**u* „f Po,(War FfMtwu AmwUrb *•?¦*•«• •/ '** American Conftrone* on International Affair, 9 Sae't Htm**!, New York...
...The problem of the Socialist-Communist split thus threatens to be one of the most basic issues of the movement again...
...As is to be expected, a large, perhaps nrestivrly large, part ot the discussions ii devoted to the past of the underground organisations...
...In countries such as Belgium, Holland, Italy, Spain and others "here religious and political cleavages aade for a multiplicity of trade-union renters, co-operation among them, if not outright merger, seems likely as a consequence of common experience...
...This is, so far as 1 could see, the only one of the authors who seems U feel the danger of contradiction between the liberal and democratic aims of labor on one hand, and the highly unfavorable economic conditions of postwar Europe...
...Still, information about the nature and scope of underground organisatiorts is deplorably scanty and unreliable, and Hollywood's glamorized pictures impress more credulous people thaa one would imagine...
...Raphael R. Abramovitch has written a preface on "The Strategy at European Labor" and well-known labor representatives from tHvm continental nations have added---—--------_ _ chapters on the special issues arising in their countries...
...War and dictatorship have long destroyed what feeble remnants of free enterprise survived a prolonged regime of cartels and monopolies, While no one seems to expect a total and rapid transformation of society in a socialist aense, the underground groups strive for a "mixed economy," combining capitalistic and socialist features...
...1.00...
...In discussing the political aims 9t labor, Finn Moe, reporting on Norway, dem wide a "strong" government...
...His report ends, apparently, in March, 1944, just before the merger of the Socialist, Christian and Communist unions in one Confederation of Italian Labor—another proof of European labor's urgent desire for unity, 1 regret that space forbida a more detailed discussion of all contributions to this excellent symposium...
...A number of common traits emerge from this issue of the quarterly...
Vol. 27 • September 1944 • No. 40
