Labor and Peace Table--Has It a Program?
BELL, DANIEL
Labor and Peace Table--Has It a Program? By DANIEL BELL Til eoiwantiona of the two big labor federations, the AFL end CIO, which opened this week took up the timeIglfaiis] facing labor in the...
...We have a right to expect the Administration not merely to wait until it sees how fsr private enterprise can fulfill our requirements...
...But what he proposes is what conserval ives have always called "Socialism" rather than a substitute for it...
...Program for Progress At the CIO convention on Tuesday Vice-President Wallace made a plain speech...
...The fact that a high government official threw these ideas out before the convention of a powerful trade union convention and that they were received with enthusiasm is enough to prove that this country will not be a hold-back island in a progressive world...
...Its business is to plan initially and dynamically for the satisfaction of the people's needs...
...Very well...
...But we ourselves, according to this commonly held notion, will remain solidly and stolidly capitalistic...
...The totalitarian organization of industry cannot be completely unscrambled...
...The quests* first came to the fore at the ILO sessions, when Robert Watt, AFL delegate, argued that a democratic G*rmany can only come through a revitalized trade ¦nion movement, and that proposals for "German slave ¦kor" in Russia would brfeak down any German re*»Wie...
...While on the whole labor has become surface-conscious of the role of political isolationism, it does not seem to have grasped the meaning of economic imperialism or seen its signs in the mirror of America as the world banker of tomorrow...
...The low state of production, the desperate needs of the populations require drastic government action...
...Whether it is called Socialism does not matter...
...The AFL is a member of the InternaFederation of Trade Unions, which permits only **Jl«bor body from a country to be represented...
...The thing is definite...
...But actually (»r»*n was speaking as an individual rather than as President of the American Federation of Labor...
...Wmt4 yet, there was a curious insularity to both proJJBLm Hare is labor claiming to represent and speak ttta Major section of the population, yet its interests, St rtrealed by the conventions agenda, are narrowly liaaited te trade union matters...
...No matter what anybody wants, when things get back on a going basis there will be a changed economy...
...The pledges cannot be evaded...
...Similar changes are taking place in England...
...John's College Sidney Hook...
...It embodies the power of the people...
...Just as we traded withv Communist Russia before the war, so—it is supposed—we will trade witeh a more-or-less Socialist Europe after the war...
...But there is no agency to channel anil control our resources of capital, although we recognized long ago the need to conserve our timber, our land and physical resources...
...On immediate issues, labor's strongest declarations were on the issue that hits closest to its pockctuook, th...
...The Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers promise practically the same things/ Both 1|rade union federations are bent on turning the promises into reality...
...The people will not let them go by default...
...Murray's statements at Philadelphia in 1943 were sharp and incisive...
...The one thing certain is that this picture cannot become a reality...
...The whole country Is pledged to s mighty effort in this direction...
...Many of them have already happened in New Zealand and Australia...
...It is true that William Green has ¦ate some excellent and courageous statements on the toasuaent of German labor after the war...
...Destruction of Little Steel Formula...
...Hut it «*» obvious to all observers that PAC will be turned imo si election machine for Henry A. Wallace in 1048- Tin choice of Wallace means that activity will be concentrated in the Democratic Party, thus striking a bio* at any hopes for a national Liberal Party which wouM force a realignment on the national scene...
...As was expected, tetji organisations isaued strong blasts against the I-.iltteHaal waste formula and both renewed their no-strike ¦leafce...
...The old sort of New Deal will not be good enough...
...As we go to press, we've received word that the CIO convention voted in favor of a "hard peace" for Ger¦aitir...
...One could never gain m understanding, by scanning labor convention doeum*U, of the tremendously changed role of America in world affairs...
...A good many writers are giving us a strange picture of the postwar world...
...But here both Murray and Green could only repeat what has been said at last year'i conventions...
...Little Sttel formula...
...MNKT DAY ICS Farmers and American Co-ops.............john dahuls The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell Arthur f. murphy The Impending Austrian Dilemma ...clwow forstir The Apologists for St...
...All we know is vague areas of agreement ¦*d disagreement...
...To furnish 60,000,000 Jobs —or snything near that number—and pay all workers a decent annual wage, we shall have to have industrial plsnning, a large measure of government intervention, and large scale consumption Anancing...
...But the jigsaw puisl* of the peace was and is being assembled at Dunliarton Oaks, Brctton Woods, Chicago, Hot Springs, London and New York^-in the security plans, monetary conferences, aviation parleys, food discussions, oil agreements, shipping talks, etc...
...American policy tends to glibly assert the necessity of expanded foreign trade, without a rational examination of its effect on world markets, colonies and exploitations of foreign peoples—and labor acquiesces...
...This, then, represent* a major split between *• AFL and CIO on a foreign policy issue...
...The CIO convention voted to continue and expsnd the work of its Political Action Committee...
...The old kind of free enterprise capitalism cannot keep these promises...
...This is all good, and The New Leader is not inclined to quarrel with the Vice-President about his use of words...
...By DANIEL BELL Til eoiwantiona of the two big labor federations, the AFL end CIO, which opened this week took up the timeIglfaiis] facing labor in the war...
...Productive industry must be permanently expanded and run on the basics of new ideas...
...which are going on right bow...
...They take for granted that Kurope is in the process of'revolution...
...William Green and Phil Mui ray may formally request a sttt for labor at the peace table...
...Be**»•* the CIO ia thus excluded, and the IFTU has on **<>rd a prior resolution refusing to admit the Rus™»n trade unions, the British Trades Union Congress, oypawed the IFTU in calling the London conferfor December *.] Bat none of this Jra* much to do with influencing or "**P'ng American foreign and economic policy...
...The workers will not tolerate a mere WPA...
...A year later, his voice was only an echo...
...Too often American capital prefers overseas investments, because of its higher returns, than expanding home capacity and raising depressed areai of living...
...I trust that the President...
...Our industrial setup must be gtsred to furnishing jobs and turning out goods for people rather than to putting profits into the hsnds of owners...
...Labor's 1944 Parliaments PAC Eyes Its Future.......Stephen Hill AFL — Slow and Steady « Morton Goodman Max Eastman and the Editors A Debate on Campaign Oratory British Labor Looks Ahead...
...But it is commonly assumed that in the midst of all this the United States will go on its way in the same old' way...
...In line ~* • vested interests policy, and dovetailing with the •""Pt* of American industrialists, the ship and maritime unions, both AFL and CIO, are plumping for sn expanded merchant marine after the war, without exploring its effects on world trade or the economies of other countries...
...On the whole, the conventional number of resoMtess on taxation, race discrimination, government aid i* yeeanversion, etc., were expected to be passed with m» dissension...
...The AH Labor League for Human Rights has taken an imPertant step forward in forming a council to aid in the reconstruction of European labor organizations...
...He proposed a yearly average wage of $2,600...
...If labor leaders were there, what would they sayf Neither ef the two labor bodies have presented any comprehensive studies on economic and political reconstruction...
...In effect, the CIO which has Js*n one of the most vigorous advocates of an antij**»it foreign policy, repudiates the distinction between *»*ism and the German people and accepts the Van*tt»rt-RuMian line...
...And labor haa not been represented...
...He warned that unices we go ahead with bold concepts "some form of Socialism is a certainty...
...is giving consideration to the pleadings of the workers of th« United States," said Phil Murray at Chicago...
...iThe •Hacks by the Soviet organ H'or ond the Work¦* C»s» on the AFL for refusal to join the London *»f»renc» is likely to widen the breech between the **L and CIO...
...What the election actually settled was our public sttitude toward this problem...
...Ls*< year's headline in The New Leader reporting the CIO convention was: Labor Opens Drive for Wage Rise...
...There, he waa opposed by Lombardo Toledano...
...It is not an industrial Red Cross...
...To think that government financed public works can take up the permanent slack is simply silly...
...In the election campaign all candidate* promised "full" employment and good wages...
...He suggested "some kind of government payroll insurance...
...mf Chicago convention, the CIO affirms that :*»• German people must be taught that they shall Wwe for their crimes...
...He said that we must provide for 60,000,000 jobs...
...We decided to go ahead consciously and planfully rather than dragging our feet...
Vol. 27 • December 1944 • No. 48
