ALERT!
Avery, Andrew
ALERT! Dedicated to an expose of all totalitarian enemies of democracy Murray as ''Peacemaker" in CIO By Andrew Avery THERE have been rumors that Philip Murray is about to step out of the...
...They informed t t h e i r readers t h a t Murray intended to decline reelection at the next CIO convention, which opens in Atlantic City on November 19...
...Murray has been represented by a CIO spokesman as denying that any Important leaders in the CIO were Communist party-liners...
...A mere' editor can repel e gremlin...
...Dedicated to an expose of all totalitarian enemies of democracy Murray as ''Peacemaker" in CIO By Andrew Avery THERE have been rumors that Philip Murray is about to step out of the presidency of the CIO...
...Two days before his assertion an issue of the CIO Newt had appeared which was the m o s t violentl y pro-Communist one within memory...
...Bufc-there ate no p a r t y commissars In the CIO, according to Murray's spokesman It is obvious, theYi, that a mysterious Kremlin gremlin must have penetrated into the national headquarters of the CIO and produeed an amazingly realistic imitation of a Communis* Fifth Column hard at work, dt was this gremlin who issued an edition of the CIO Newt that might have been printed in the Daily Worker...
...Let the Wall Street war hounds howl.^he refused to be a party In any internal moves that could only lead to tearing the CIO apart irr fratricidal warfare...
...Re ill Robinson, pro-Communist president of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (CIO), barely squeezed through to re-election...
...It enough to defend Pressman, Bridges, Robinson, Kmspak, Matles, and DeCaux...
...t h ey would not lead to t h e ousting of Commun i s t leaders in any affiliated unions, nor would they cause t h e Communists to bolt from the CIO a n d form a new federation of Cheir own...
...R.KCENTT/Y the Communist Party has begun estalrlishirig new weekly papers in various parts of the country...
...Writing fondly of "this man who has come to symbolize progressive labor unity," the columnist went on: "When the early stages of the mounting...
...Ha a e n t s It so l.adly that the CIO Ntw* has become a < . i l l i n i u m . ! propaganda organ...
...Perhaps the committee will report...
...J ^ T CIO h e a d q u a r t e r s Louis Stark »m told "unequivocally that Mr...
...Manifestly the Communists look to MUM ay ai their benign protector in the CIO...
...Thus i t appears that Phllrjb M u r r a y - w a n t s the AmericaTTpeo^ l e to believe that Bridges, Robinson, Emspak, Matles, and the like are neither Communists nor fellow-traveler...
...THK September 16 issue of the CIO News carried a _ f r o n t page headline: " F o r World Peace...
...Nor would Murray's successor be free t o fight S t a l i n i s t infiltration, according t o this conception of) t h e duties of the president of t h e CIO a s peacemaker...
...He t h i n k s Murr a y "deliberately released the s t o r y " as " a maneuver to warn the Communists ami anti-Communists in CK) to stop brawling or he will stop being peacemaker and let them massacre each other...
...The latest word from Washington is J list Len DeCauxv^the "non-Communist" editor of the CIO Sew*, will implore Murray to appoint an investigating Committee in brder t o discover the identity of the intruder...
...Michael Quill, president of the Transport Workers' Union and an ardent party-liner, helped shepherd them '•round New York...
...f r e e t o e x p r e s s himself on the subject of Communism...
...of all militants, regardless of party or rhurrh atiilialion, to membership and office in the (TO...
...The story o^ M u r r a y ' s impending retirement was told by r e p o r t e r s as dislimilar as Edwin A. Lahey, the p r o - Soviet l a b o r editor of the conservative Chicago...
...The paper in Chicago is the Chicago Slur, and in its September 14 issue the "Inside Labor" department was devoted to Murray, who had come to Chicago to speak at the district convention of the United Steelworkers...
...Louis S t a r k is a notably accurate rep o r t e r . Through him, Murray' s spokesman has told the public what Murray w a n t s t o have told...
...I t seems, then, that the president of the CIO, whoever he may be, is" not free to express himself on t h e subject of the Communist Fifth Column...
...Ken Gold, president of the F ur W o r k e r s ' , and Louis Weinstock, tecret a r y of District Nine of the P a i n t e r s' Union, hob op as corporation heads of the freedom of the Press Company which publishes The Daily Worker...
...And simultaneously the Daily Worker and other Communist media ardently praised Murray for r e s i s t i n g the antiCommunist drive I n t h e CIO...
...If Murray stays, will this continue...
...Jut he "will Stake | t sufficiently clear to h i s associates Hkiiat he is n e i t h e r r e d - b a i t i n g nor running away' from responsibility in his decision to r e s i g n as p r e s i d e n t of the CIO...
...Morris, as Communist as the "school" Itself, will talk on the...
...It seemed to them that tho Communist I'aity, because of urgent international reasons, must have directed its commissars in the CIO' to abandon t h e i r usual degree of r e s t r a i n t and, regardless of Murray's wishes, notify the world that the CIO favored the Wallace policy'of appeasement of Stalin...
...Two names, at least, should be included in t h i s l i s t : Lee P r e s s m a n , general counsel of the CIO, and Len De Caux, CIO publicity director, and editor of the CIO News...
...Control of such t r a n s p o r t a t i o n has always been high o n . t h e Stalinist agenda lor obvipus reasons, hut Communist influence has dwindled on the r a i l r o a d s . Now t h e C P is p u b l i s h i ng a r a i l r o a d puper, The Link, setting up two New York offices and p u t t i ng o r g a n i z e r s on the payroll in other cities...
...The general manager is good old William Lawrence, who now adds the name ' 'Laser" to his title after 20 y e a r s under the Lawrence pseudonym...
...In that position,-as Lahey put it, Murray, "will he...
...and there were confident denials...
...If he does r e t i r e , "it will be solely for h e a l t h reasons...
...I'iie Communist* in the United Electrical and Radio Workers whipped up their machine and came through with handsome majorities, bui the anti-Stalinist wing i s regrouping its forces...
...anti-Soviet hysteria found •dim irnk bending before the, gatherin it storm...
...The anti-Stalinist forces rallied 3UB votes to for Keiil...
...If Bridges, Robinson, Emspak, and Matles are not p a r t y - l i n e r s, neither are Pressman and De Caux...
...H e has discussed this possib i l i ty with several associates, but will not reveal his decision to anyone before t h e convention...
...As active president of the Steelworke r s , Murray would be free t o s p e a k mfcre honestly about the F i f th Columnists tmui he has in the p a s t , just as t h e president of any other affiliated u^orTmay do...
...There was a picture of Senator Claude Pepper, and the rest of the page was becupied with red-hot account of tin- meeting in Madison Square Garden...
...New York, at which Pepper and Wallace had made their proSoviet speeches to a predominantly Communist audience, gathered together by the National Citizens Political Action Committee and the Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Profession's...
...Having weighed all these assertions, Victor Riesel, the labor editor of the S'ew York Post, brought in a verdict that Murray would not quit...
...How big apprize will he pay fat harmony ? is the September I f issue of N"- ' 10 N*w» an omen that this official (',10 paper will continue as a propaganda vehicle for Russian imperialism while attacking Anglo-American Imperialism ? Philip Murray must answer these questions...
...Murray had no mtentiqn of starting a campaign against left-wingers or Communists inside the CIO.'' Murray doesn't believe " t h a t Harry ^Bridges, Reid Robinson, J u l i u s Kmspak, James J. Matles," and other high CIO lenders a r e "followers of the Communist party ilne...
...The Communists are conducting tin- tour of WWld Federation of Trade Union heads in many cities...
...Morris U. Sehappes is back at his old stand aj^instructor at the School of' Jewish Studies...
...Murray continued as the stout oak of CIO unity...
...Phil Murray . . . publicly defended the rights...
...They wonld not really end a n g e r the Communists in t h e CIO...
...B u t h i s words would have comparatively l i t t l e effect...
...His task, r a t h e r , is to hold balance between the Communists and the anti-Communists, t o maintain unity...
...There is one in Denver ami one in Chicago, and another will soon be started in Michigan...
...Listening In on the Party Line T l IK Communist P a r t y ' s railroad fraction is t u r n i n g on the steam...
...Arid if Murray goes, who will succeed him T Is there another h^frmoniser In the house...
...on this at the Atlantic City convention...
...Murray it a man who wants harmony, and he want...
...The reports of Murray's retirement were officially denied at CIO headquart e r s . Then Louis S t a r k of t h e New York Times gave the following information, a s coming from "a person speaking with a u t h o r i t y " : Murray has not made up his mind whether or not to leave the presidency of the CIO...
...Watch for fireworks...
...Nor was the hand of the Kremlin invisible m the rest of t h e . p a p e r. Many CIO leaders pronounced tins issue of t h e CIO News as the most openly pro-Communist one they could remember...
...History of the .lew t in the American Labor Movement}' . . . including, no doubt, his conviUian for perjury, after ha\i"K lll'lll" <l undei oat any Stall mitts were on the City Cullege faculty— another witness miuieil more than .'10, Speaking of ^Stalinist schools, the Jefferson School for Social Science, which used- to he known under the plain title of "'Workers' School," has net lip four "annexes"—two in the Bronx and two in Brooklyn...
...However/ he feels that in some of the local unions there are p a r t y - l j n e followers and Communists...
...Daily News, and James A. Wcchslef, the anti-Communist Washington correspondent of t h e New York Post...
...More than 80 percent of the material on page 2 was also pro-Communist...
...He p l a n s to devote himself actively tp his d u t i e s as president of the, U n i t e d Steel W o r k e r s , it was •aid...
Vol. 29 • October 1946 • No. 40
