LETTERS To the Editor
LETTERS To the Editor Italian-American Labor Council -- Salerno vs. Antonini From JOSEPH SALERNO 7» th* Editor: I wish to comment on • letter from Luigi Antonini to Philip Murray, president of...
...Salerno's assertion that they did thit in order to avoid legal controversies, is laughable...
...The fact is that Beilanca and Catalanotti prudently gave their rump organization the changed name of Free Italy Italian-American Labor Council...
...Between 1924-40 I have spoken ia the election rallies for La Guardia, which were real snti-Fsscist meetings in New York, from the same platform with Luigi Antonini...
...Let me quote from the minutes of the 1943 C.I.O...
...In 1940 I was elected member of tha New England Executive Board of tha Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies and served on thst Committee up to the time of its disband-ment in 1942...
...Thanks to you all for a fine job...
...Lately, they are also associating ia a Committee of National War Fund with such well-known fascists as Dr...
...Between 1926-30 my activities and contributions toward the anti-Fascist newspaper "II Nuovo Mondo" are a matter of public record...
...It is they, Mes-sers Beilanca and Catalanotti, whom I expected to '.tear from, and not Salerno, who apparently knows little of the situation...
...I did attack the American Committee for Italian Democracy with Generoto Pope as nine-tenth Fascist...
...Like Janus, he has two faces...
...As Salerno spoke of a Labor Committee, the smear was directed against the only Labor Committee with which I am connected, namely the Italian-American Labor Council...
...And this was before Pearl Harbor During the past five years at President of the Massachusetts State C.I.O...
...I presided at four mass meetings and spoke with Angelica Balabanoff and Max Salvadori against the Ethiopian War...
...is one of the few New Englsnd militant, courageous ¦ •¦ti Fascists who has dared for many yesrs to stand against Fascism at home and abroad...
...Previtali, Lido Belli, radio announcer, sent for some time to a concentration camp, and even with Paul Rao...
...He clsims we were the ones who held a rump meeting sad created a dual organization...
...I did denounce Antonini's new Fascist alliances with Generoto Pope and all those other ex-Fascists who have poisoned the minds of the Italian people for the past twenty years...
...For the past twenty years I have spoken in Massachusetts for the International Ladies' Gsrment Workers Unions against Fascism...
...Baldansi and myself criticised Antcnini's action for having divided and disrupted the Italian American Labor Council...
...Salerno claims sn anti-fascist record, the one he showed while appearing before American liberals and laborites...
...They were defeated...
...This splitting tactic was repeated by the same persons at the recent Mazzini Society Convention...
...In 1924 I was chairman of the first anti-Fascist and Matteotti assassination protest mass meeting with over 25,000 participants held in the Boston Common with Carlo Treses, Alfred Baker Lewis, snd Arturo Giovannitti as speakers...
...Both Mr...
...During the past twenty years I hsve spoken-sgainst Fascism at hundreds of meetings—among them gatherings st Harvsrd University, The University of Providence, Radcliffe College, Wellesley College, M.I.T., Holy Cross, Simmons College and seversl other educational institutions...
...Two years ago the Italian American Labor Council was founded in New York, composed of C.I.O...
...The plain fact is that, as even metropolitan papers (except the Daily Worker snd partly Phf) reported, the ones who orgsnized the rump meeting were Beilanca and Catalanotti together with their communist friends...
...Not for Antonini who knows better, or those who know me, but for those readers who do not know me and may be deceived by Antonini's confuting statements as to my past snti-Fsscist sctivitiet before Pearl Harbor...
...the records of our convention and of hundreds of meetings speak for themselves about my denunciation of Fascism, Nazism, snd the Castor Oil Brigade...
...It wss unanimously voted by seversl hundred trade union delegate members of the Council that Antonini be deposed as President...
...H All J f DlTOR/A t om tftf sc4 From JOHN J. NATHAN* To the Editor: Your editorial in today's issue ea Carlo Treses ia a One piece of unprejudiced revolutionary journalism aad the writer Jstsrvas a warm applause, Van Loan's column is simply grand, marvelous...
...About my own record, I present the following fscts...
...Our meeting was the regular one...
...The fscts are thst Beilanca and Catalanotti did stsrt a legsl controversy, by sending their lswyer to object to our receiving the inrorpo-rstion chsrter for the Italian-American Labor Council...
...and A.F.ofL...
...Convention, proceedings of Thursday, November 4, 1848, on Page 10...
...From luigi 4NTONINI President, Italian-American Labor Council To the Editor: It can be proven easily that I have not distorted Mr...
...Instead he called a rival meeting...
...leaders of Italian descent On a certain day last July, the executive board of the Italian American Leber Council (of which Antonini was president) met and unanimously voted that neither Antonini nor any other member of the Council should have anything to do with Generoto Pope and his cohorts...
...Convention in Phils delphia concerning his ill advised action in joining the American Committee for Italian Democracy with Generate Pope and other leading ex-Fstcitt* George Baldansi and I decided to present the argument in favor of the Free Italy American Labor Council resolution at the Philadelphia convention, which we did...
...In my opinion, there is no difference, to the disadvantage of Generoso Pope, between him and such prominent Italian-Americans as Judge Felix Forte of Boston, Judge Alessan-droni of Philadelphia, Cavalier Spa-tuzza of Chicago, with whom Salerno's, Bellsnea's sad Catalanotti...
...Antonini sgreed to obey the decision of the executive board of the Italian American Labor Council, but 48 hours later Antonini joined the Generoso Pope Committee and became one of its officers...
...This action was in defiance of Antonini's own executive board...
...Thereupon, Joseph Catalanotti, ss Secretary of the Italian Americsn Labor Council, called a general meeting of the Council for appropriate action...
...The Council is s delegsto body made up exclusively of labor representatives of Italian origin...
...this is a battle of programs and ideals...
...These radio stations, have my speeches filed ia their records, which speak for themselves...
...Fcr the past ten years, I have denounced Fascism and Nazism hundreds of times over radio station WHDH and WBZ of Boston and WLAW of Law ranee...
...Salerno either was extremely careless in his remarks at the C.I.O...
...Antonini From JOSEPH SALERNO 7» th* Editor: I wish to comment on • letter from Luigi Antonini to Philip Murray, president of the CIO, which appeared in the December 4th issue...
...He is not a member of it and was not in New York when the controveriy arose...
...According to Boston's Italian anti fascists who know Salerno't other activities, when appearing before Italians, he was not so consistently snti fascist as he presumes to be after Pearl Harbor...
...Salerno's statement at the C.I.O...
...The controversy about thit last committee it not between myself and Salerno, but between me, on one side, snd August Bellsnca and Joseph Catalanotti, of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers on the other...
...Antonini was notified but did not appear...
...Salerno is not qualified to speak...
...During the Ethiopian War at a mass meeting of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union in Beaton I denounced the ill-advised Ethiopian venture...
...Perhaps he confused the Italian-American Labor Council, which it a fighting matt anti-fascist organization, with the American Committee for Italian Democracy, an organisation formed to mobilize the political and economic resources of Italian-Americans for the purpose of assisting the innocent people of Italy...
...This is not a contest of personalities...
...In that letter, Luifi Antonini has distorted the statements I made at the National C.I.O...
...And just to bring the record up to date, on December 19, 1943, the author of "Undercover," John Roy Carlson, at the New England Jewish Congress at the Hotel Bradford in Boston said: "Joseph Salerno, President of the Massachusetts State C.I.O...
...Neither Generoso Pope nor any other outsider is a member of L Mr...
...The truth is that they have opposed Pope only because Pope refused the Communist party offers for a united front As for the Italian-American Labor Council, Mr...
...In regard to the American Committee for Italian Democracy, my position is dear enough...
...Continuing, Delegate Salerno pointed out horn Luigi Antonini had deeerted this committee and given hie encouragement and support to oM the faeciet elements, that he had feme ever to another American Labor Committee where nine of ten of the leadiag spirite were fascist...
...Was this before Petri Harbor...
...Convention, where ha charged the Labor Committee, with which I am connected, with being made up nine-tenths of fascists...
...Convention, or he is now trying to recent thst section in which he referred to our Labor Committee as being led by fascists...
...unieei representatives have associated aad are associating...
Vol. 27 • January 1944 • No. 4
