World Labor and Russian Power Politics
Goodman, Morton
World Labor and Russian Power Politics Should tree American Labor Cooperate With Soviet lotalitarian Unions? By Morton Goodman THE International Labor Conference In London B«Xt week marka ? new...
...Comrade Joseph Curran, head of the National Maritime Union, joined Quill io...
...Stalinist Michael Quill, president of the Transport Workers' Onion, characterized the war "as a struggle to maintain bankers' profits...
...So rfolutiun even mcntwntd Adolph Hitler or the systematic campaign of extermination waged by the Nazit against the people* of occupied Europe...
...The Communist knows—and tells: "The CIO on the whole has never in the past adopted a clear policy on foreign affairs...
...Labor organization* throughout Um world ara looking forward to London for the blueprint which will soap the role of labor in the reconstruction of the postwar world...
...Dissolve the Anglo-American War Alliance...
...In the words of Sir Walter Citrine, "The International Federation of Trad» Unions . . . respects both in its...
...Vassily Kmmetxov, bead of the Russian unions, has called for · body "new V, its aims 'as well as construction...
...British unionists are not too happy about this...
...The delegates unanimously endorsed the resolutions recommended by the resolutions committee...
...More than one-third of the forty members elected to the CIO Executive Board at the...
...The London Labor Conference ia being boosted aa the new hope for the trade unions of the world in the establishment of peace, prosperity, and goodwill...
...As such he speaks in the accents, and with the authority of, the Russian government...
...Flnxer, chief of the State, County, and Municipal Workers—both Stalinists from away back—rose to call for all-out production...
...of the National Defenae Program...
...The Ymnke Are Not Coming...
...Tbe Stalinists attack the IFTU as undemocratic, unfair, and unrepresentative...
...Lewis was hailed as a militant and progressive labor leader...
...Sir Walter Citrine, Secretary of the British Trade Union Congress and President of the International Federation of Trade Unions, has been -for many years strongly opposed to Stalinist trade unionism...
...TllE IFTU did not, accept the Russian unions...
...Th* Russians now propose that the international trade union movement shall become tbe weathervane of Kremlin power politics.' The desire of world labor to bring to life the Four Freedoms of the Atlantic Charter may be re-routed at London to a new destination—Pan-Russianism...
...The British Foreign Office is backing the show and is anxious to have British unionists cooperate, perhaps in anticipation of postwar Russian trade sorely needed to stimulate a bankrupt British economy...
...Liberty of association and the right to strike are characteristics of legitimate trade unionism, ft rest* with the Russian Trade Unions to demonstrate that they possess these, qualities...
...those not government-controlled...
...Comrade Mika Quill took th* floor to demand the second front Comrade Joe Curran aaked labor to make every possible sacrifice to defeat Hitlerism...
...Even Switzerland, recently denounced aa "fascist" by the Soviets, wss formally pronounced "democratic" again so that it could be represented...
...The Third Convention of the Congress of Industrial Organizations was held in Atlantic City in November, 1940—during the battle for Britain...
...In the previous period the Left and progressive forces carried on an anti-imperialist policy with the Lewis trend which was merely isolationist . . . (and) . . . brought'about a situation in which there were compromises on specific questions regarding National Defense Policy, with no general foreign policy on th* part of the CIO...
...it is also a great war of the entire Soviet people against German fascist forces...
...The opening hand has been dealt and the game will begin in London...
...Hie I KT u » * casualty of the Hitler Wehrmacht but not all casualties are fatalities...
...A number of resolutions pertaining to the European War, and to the role of labor in the U. S. National Defense Program were introduced...
...It voted to set up a National CIO Committee for British and Allied Relief...
...Slogans were suggested to the comrades for popularisation among mass organization*: No Convoys— So ASF...
...These same delegates have already declared themselves In favor of not limply a new world trass) union center, but for a new and all-inclusive "Socialist" international to replace the Comintern...
...The Stalinists must act quickly in order to capitalize upon their role in the resistance movements while sentiment still fa vors them...
...By Morton Goodman THE International Labor Conference In London B«Xt week marka ? new development in power politics...
...William L. White, in his forthcoming book Report on the Russians, tells of a long talk he had with Kux-netzov...
...A go in ft American Imperialiem in Latin America...
...Unanimity and apeed characterised the work of this committee...
...Kuznetsov conveniently forgets that Soviet exports of oil to Italy broke the attempt of the League of Nations to impose sanctions and halt the fascist invasion of Ethiopia...
...The CIO also wants a new labor body presumably because the International Federation of Trade Unions admits only one affiliate from each country...
...The agenda was prepared in only three days by a Committee of Anglo-Rossian-CIO unionists which met in London in December...
...1940 and 1941 conventions were party-members or fellow-travelers...
...Every country of importance and many unimportant ones will be represented All governments-in-exile (with the exception of the Polish) are recommending the affiliation of their unions-in-exile...
...Russia ia emphatically opposed to the revival of tiki International Federation of Trade Unions—* mem advocated by the A FL which is raising a fund «f 11,000,000 for this purpose...
...Such a criticism is hard to take from the leader of a movement whose members produced war supplies for the Wehrmacht back in 1939, 1940, and 1941...
...L. Sidorenko, Secretary of the Committee of the Russian Unions, was so impressed by the spirit of harmony (just like home to him) that he felt impelled to mention "How unanimous we are...
...of the "war-monger," Roosevelt The Allies were blamed for provoking Hitler into invading Denmark and Norway...
...The rules of the CTAL carry precisely the same stipulation, but then Toledano is one of the Kremlin's pink-haired boys...
...Only the AFL, the Railroad Brotherhoods,ami John L. Lewis' United Mine Workers are staying away...
...When Sidney Hillman was asked about the AFL's contention that the Russian unions are government dominated he replied, "The internal affairs of the Soviet Union are their affair, not ours...
...Their success in the CIO and in Toledano'a CTAL have given the Stalinist« entry to something much larger—a comprehensive world trade anion organization...
...attacking the Selective Service Act The official magazine of the American Communist Party during this period presents a striking parallel...
...Lewis Merrill, head of the Office Workers' Union, and Abnun...
...to win the war, secure a just peace, and improve the well-being of the peoples of tbe world...
...On December ?, 1944, Kutnetxov made the charge that "not all trade unions prosecuted the struggle against fascism . . . (which) . . . was one of the reasons why the latter grew to a tremendous force...
...Kuznetzov is a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party...
...Roy Hudson tells us where to head in pretty plainly in his pamphlet, Communiat* and the Trade Union», "What must the Russian trade unionists think when Matthew W oil, Bill Hutchinson, John L. Lewis . . . insult the Russians by saying that the Russian trad* unions ar* not free, that they are undemocratic, and that the Russian workrs do not control them...
...Of course," he answered, "any . . . (leadmy unie* official) . . . must be approved by the government...
...Here ia an American labor organisation actually functioning aa the diplomatic mouthpiece for ? foreign government...
...Isolationist Senator Wheeler was lauded...
...Here the Stalinists openly admitted that with the help of John L. Lewis, they had blocked any attempt to formulate a CIO policy which might, even by implication, have been unfavorable to the Russians during the period of the Nazi-Soviet Pact Now take a look at the Fourth CIO Convention which met in ^id-November of 1941— five months after th* invasion of the Soviet Union...
...Rasaina diplomacy ia new in the big time, and if the Kremlin play ia astute, then a decisive section of world uber will Ind itself h*rasased to the droahky of Rassiaa newer politics...
...As long as American trade unionists do not sit down with their fellow unionists in the Soviet Union, then can the Russian people feel sure that American labor will back up the Commander-in-Chief...
...It is not only a war between armies...
...Sometimes they recover...
...This convention suddenly realized that Hitlerism was a menace to our American way of life...
...The Russians hope that a new movement will be the tombstone *# the WTU...
...Sidney Hillman was attacked again and again, while John I...
...Speed and unity are the slogans of the day...
...This is a sorry sight indeed...
...This statement brings the whole question into sharp focus...
...It is a combination of trade unions voluntary in character, freely representing the interests of their members...
...By constitution it admits only "free" trade unions, i...
...Labor unions war* urged to strike...
...Roy Hudson, veteran Stalinist trad* union theoretician, had this to say in the Communist of May 1941, just one month before the invasion of Russia: "The boat and moat effective fighters of the labor movement . . . gave wholehearted approval to the bold and courageous action of Lewis in denouncing Roosevelt's program as a war program...
...Why didn't the CIO issue a statement...
...They may lind too late that they have been the unwitting instruments of the new Pan-Buss ianism...
...Sidney Hillman and Philip Murray agreed...
...Pretest the Right to Strike...
...Anyone who so much as questions the motives of the sacred cow of ? ? emiin policy will find himself denounced by the Moscow press, and by its international agencies...
...rules and practice the fullest autonomy of its constituent bodies...
...Communist trade unionists nre associated with this section of tbe labor movement" • · · The Communist of September 1941 made a clarion call for the establishment of the Second Front To prove how different the July War was from the June War, Stalin himself waa quoted on page one: "This war with fascist Germany ia not an ordinary war...
...The "bankers" war was now ft holy crusade for American labor—before Pearl Harbor...
...Harry Bridges suddenly awoke and made ft speech...
...It called for all-out aid to the heroic people of Russia, Great Britain, and China...
...Support the Peace Policy of the Soviet Union...
...Kuznetzov replied that it was free...
...It clamored for national unity...
...Any machine politician knows that a well-heeled and well-organized minority can rule the majority...
...The French union delegation will contain a strong representation of CP members— something which could not have happened before the war...
...The CIO had its knuckles rapped: "In the 10th week of tbe heroic struggle of the Red Army against the Nazi hordes, we find that the CIO . . . has not yet spoken out It must be declared that in this respect the statement of the Executive Council of the AFI . . . calling for American aid to the USSRtCkepresents a most important development . . . (which) only serves to emphasise the unsatisfactory situation in regard to the CIO...
...Moscow feels that it is proper that a national trade union organization be tossed about by the winds of Soviet diplomatic exigencies...
...Vassily Kuznetsov's relationship to the Russiea unions is not the same as that of William Green, or Philip Murray to American unions...
...WhAT applies to the CIO holds good for any labor organization whose policies are controlled by Stalinists...
...This last slogan is a beauty coming as it did right on the heels of the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland, and the rape of Finland...
...They dominated all important eon-, vention committees...
...Or that the Communist Party of Germany formed a parliamentary bloc in the Reichstag at a time when IFTU members wer* fighting th* storm troopers ia the streets of Berlin...
...CIO orientation to Kremlin policy ia duplicated even more strikingly by tbe Latin American Federation of ' Workers (CTAL) headed by Stalinist Vincente Lombarde Toledano, who characterises opposition to his policies a* "Trotskyism...
...Each issue of the Communist in 1940 and up to July 1941 contained in almost every article a denunciation of the "Wall Street Imperialist War...
...Now is this a perfectly free union movement" White asked at one point, "or is it directed by your government...
...A negotiated peace with Germany waa treated "objectively"—and favorably...
...American Stalinists are a small group within the CIO but they are strategically placed...
...Against tike Wall Street Military DieUtorokip...
...When White questioned him about strikes, he said, "Yes, in 1919 a strike in one steel mill lasted two days, And in 1923 there was a little strike out in westers Russia...
...Tbe Soviets will agree with him about the Soviet Union— 6ut not about any other country...
...There have been no strikes since, and in the future there won't be any...
...He has on many occasions termed the Russian unions as "Communist Party and government dominated" and he has doubted the sincerity of the Russians in seeking international trade union unity, notably in his book, / Search for the Truth in Russia...
Vol. 28 • January 1945 • No. 4
