CIO, AFL UNITE TO BUILD NEW, FREE 'WFTU'
DANISH, MAX D.
CIO, AFL Unite To Build New, Free WFTU By Max D. Banish Editor, "Justice" THERE 18 HARDLY ANY NEED FOR VERBAL EXPANSION on the reasons why the CIO's top command voted last month by a...
...The AFL Executive Council, pn the other hand, appears to have been very pleased at its last meeting 'with the conciliatory and cooperative attitude of the CIO leaders, and has reacted in a . similar vein...
...The 616 also displayed truly cooperative spirit by not advancing the AFL unflagging insistence on sole representation in the International Labor Office (ILO) as an obstacle to joint participation in the new labor « center...
...Another continental group of unions, the German free labor federation, ' which has proved its mettle in several "hot" instsnces during the past year, should be welcomed into the new world labor center, on a basis of equality, it is to be earnestly hoped...
...2) discredit ideas in any way related to them, such as liberalism, radicalism, democratic socialism and trade unionism: and (3) discredit all those who have been, are...
...r Jv • • • HOW SOOK WILL this new world labor body come into being...
...Some of the more alert spirits in the "Hot Stove" League of labor politics have already decided that such a federation with the inevitable John L. Lewis in command, is in the cards...
...the Army's classification of Dr...
...Americans will not be deluded by the fear-producing mechanisms of the communists or their opposite numbers on the extreme right...
...WHAT ABOUT A THIRD LABOR federation in the event the tenancy of the pro-Comunist element in the CIO becomes utterly uncomfortable for them after the CIO convention...
...But the party-liners are shrewd enough, at the same time, to realize that they cannot win against a six-toone majority in the CIO...
...It is the uncopyrighted judgement of this reporter that the mighty John L. will shun an alliance with the avowed Commie elements in the labor movement, especially with the Taft-Hartley issue about to be relegated to unsavory memory...
...It is up to them to work for the establishment of a state of mental and emotional equilibrium in which it will be possible to deal more logically, and more democratically, with the problem of communism...
...Both extremes, feeding each other, represent a threat to progressive democracy...
...Beyond cavil, this wedlock had been consummated in late 1045 on the basis of fraudulent representation on the part of eager Soviet strategists who were planning a quick "killing" of...
...It's been a long time, indeed, since the early CIO days when Lewis tolerated and even fostered the communist mad rush into strategic spots in that burgeoning labor body...
...the Hickenlooper brickbats at the Atomic Energy Commission—these are some of the more frightening features of the prevailing mood...
...Meanwhile, let us keep cool, steadfast and united...
...Murray might even be able to turn them out of power, but Murray has never been known to be affront-fighter — he will, quite likely, choose the less spectacular and less risky infighting at his own convention in November...
...Unable to cope with this unique political fifth column, the misguided, the fascist-minded, the overzealous and the ignorant, may harm democracy more than the Soviet, fifth column, unless they learn that unwarranted smearing of liberals and repentant ex-communists only accentuates the atmosphere of hysteria and "persecution" in which communism flourishes...
...INSOFAR AS OUR SIDE of the Atlantic is concerned, it may safely be stated that this tightening of the labor front against "fifth column" work in labor's camp is a veiy tangible result of the cold war which Western democracy, with the U. S. in the van, has been waging aguinst the ruthless monolithic behemoth from the East...
...Nevertheless, the rapprochement among the splinter groups is already proving a thorn in the flesh of the Stalinist trade union satraps and has materially lowered the "nuisance" value of Pietro Nenni vis-a-vis Palmiro Toglntti in the top Communist echelons of Italy...
...Having broken with the WFTU, the British laborites have no stomach for a lengthy period of "isolation...
...they say...
...Unless something radical happens between now and October, Philip Murray appears determined to go through with this purge...
...The last meeting of the CIO's national board practically served notice on the Emspaks, the Matles', the Bridges', the Hendersons and their ilk, that it will not stand for their leadership of CIO unions...
...Let us not be carried away by artificially-engendered panic...
...AN EDITORIAL— Those Political Jitters THE NEW LEADER AGREES WITH PRESIDENT TRUMAN that the country has become jittery over the communist issue...
...In addition, liberals, radicals, democratic socialists, trade unionists and lovers of liberty in general, must remain ever vigilant lest new excesses be committed in the name of the fight against communism...
...Too many blue Kremlin chips were involved in the WFTU to give up without, at least, the appearance of a drag-out battle...
...The Cominform, which today takes the place of both the old Comintern and the discarded Profintern, had frantically realised that to give up the WFTU would be to concede the worst defeat for Moscow in the course of the entire cold war, a fiasco that would overshadow even the debacle of the Berlin blockade...
...The Austrian free unions, the LatinAmerican federations and, last but not least, the submerged Spanish unions over whom the Damoclean sword of Franco hangs literally every day, should gain admittance if only for the very important reason that they will strengthen the hand of the never-say-die Spanish workers...
...To take the heat off themselves*, the communists would have us believe that "fascism" is the main danger...
...Power-hungry though he may be, Lewis could hardly be expected to mount a Red steed at this stage of his life without the fear of smearing himself from head to foot...
...The smearing of Melvyn Douglas as~a "fellow-traveler...
...And without a Lewis to give it some prestige coloration, a comuni.it splinter labor federation is nothing, we assume, that Moscow would become enthusiastic about...
...But the timing desired by U. S. labor will, in all likelihood—prevail...
...The pilots of the WFTU, however, among them France's Franchon and Italy's Nenni and di Villorio, quickly came up for a second breather, palpably under a Com in form pulmotor...
...Therefore there is no choice for liberty-loving Americans but to join the Soviet fifth column to beat down the common enemy, "fascism...
...CIO, AFL Unite To Build New, Free WFTU By Max D. Banish Editor, "Justice" THERE 18 HARDLY ANY NEED FOR VERBAL EXPANSION on the reasons why the CIO's top command voted last month by a crushing majority to "disaffiliate" from the WFTU (World Federation of Traded Unions...
...THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, for example, assailed President Truman for suggesting that we all cool down a little...
...In a senBe, this separation of the free labor unions from the state-owned labor groups in the Soviet orbit is more in the nature of an annulment than a divorce...
...The big fighting zone between free world labor and the Kremlinites in the driver's seat of the WFTU will, therefore, be the unions of France and Italy...
...And let us, by all means, continue to smoke out the communisms from their underground hideouts...
...Sorley and Irving Brown, it seems certain now, will move at that meeting for an international labor congress with the widest possible representation to take place in the late fall or early winter, after the two main American labor conventions have been held...
...and more important: to show that what we require, basically, is a long-term perspective—a dynamic alternative—which alone can provide a lasting answer to the communists, yes, and to the extremists on the right...
...That the Red gentry will put up some sort of a fight for their offices at the convention—an immensely valuable Communist vested interest — goes without saying...
...Muray could strengthen his fighting power right now if he chose to make a direct attack on the proCommunist chieftains of the United Electrical Workers, which is holding elections next month for delegates to its September convention...
...The News concluded that the government is trying to protect hordes of secret communist agents...
...This interlocutory divorcement, to be approved next November by the CIO national convention, will not meet with any insurmountable hindrances...
...The British need a world federation far more urgently than the Americans...
...In a new world federation, molded this time "without fear or favor" of the Kremlin, the British intend—and they will—play in it the big role which is theirs by right and tradition—numerical and psychological—in European labor...
...Some "dying swan" hysterics will, doubtless, be staged by the more 1 blatant Stalinists, but the •Red revolt" should peter out on that shrill note...
...THE WORK OF EXPOSING COMMUNISM cannot go on effectively in an atmosphere of hysteria...
...In the latter country, the battle lines, at last, are forming for a decisive test of power between the now allied Christian Democratic unions, the Saragat-Socialist unions and the unions which incline toward the Pacciardi-Republican faction, and on the other hand, the Nenni-Togliati Red combine...
...The British, on the other hand, will be pushing for an earlier date than at present envisaged by the American groups...
...Western Europe, which lay physically prostrate and spiritually shell-shocked, after six years of frightful bloodletting...
...The meeting of coordinators and platform builders from the AFL, the CIO, the British TUC and other pledgees to the formation of an anti - Communist international labor body is scheduled for June 26, in Geneva, to follow adjournment of the ILO's sessions in that city...
...To focus properly on this matter, it Spay be best to assume that this undertaking to muster out an effective world free labor center is still in its preliminary stages...
...They had apparently expected some sharp rhetoric from the British and the CIO, but were not prepared for outright abandonment...
...The state of mind Mr...
...This conclusion not only faila to tally with the facts (witness the trial of the eleven Communist party leaders), but is part of a trend spearheaded by elements like the News to: (1) Discredit the New Deal and Fair Deal...
...George Counts and Roger Baldwin as "unemployables...
...For this reason, we urge greater caution, and the most judicious use of investigatory functions on the part of official agencies working on subversive activities...
...Hence, the need to ceaselessly expose underground communist machinations in this country—without impairing in the slightest our civil liberties—is a permanent necessity, and must continue with remorseless vigor...
...The difference is, however—and this Americans dare not undervalue—is that the "fascist" threat is still a minor one, but that the menace represented by the Kremlin's agents is of major, worldwide proportions...
...The whole scheme concocted during the postwar honeymoon period of "allied" amity, to absorb the labor movement of Europe and the world in a splurge of counterfeit affection, appeared to have been doomed...
...They may choose to play "loyal" for a time and and to cooperate clandestinely with the WFTU if they cannot formally affiliate with it...
...In almost identical editorials on the same day (June 17), they proclaimed that the selection of Dr...
...The fact that the late Sidney Hillman, for the CIO, and Sir Walter Citrine, for the British Trades Union Congress, both concededly astute bargainers and cautious realists, had fallen for the Soviet blarney of "submerging all national and Ideological differences in the higher Interests of the great common cause which unites us all," only goes to prove that even smart men can be outsmarted by connivers who are totally devoid of both labor and common ethics...
...Nothing, it seems, could better strengthen the Western position in Germany, both in the East and West zones, than such an affiliation, and it may require nearmartyrdoom for those trade unionists, leaders and rank and Ale alike, to openly ally themselves with the democratic side in the Russian zone...
...The AFL executives were particularly impressed with the CIO's agreeableness regarding representation on the membership in the new world' •'<¦ labor body...
...Let us not permit the communists to carry the ball for us against "fascism," or "fascists" to carry the ball for us against communism...
...The communist objective is clear...
...The AFL representatives, George Meany, George Delaney, William J. Mc...
...the purges in our schools...
...With the Kremlin we are involved in a life-and-death struggle over the fate of humanity itself...
...Criticism of communists is dangerous because it helps the "fascists...
...The strong pro-Moscow majority in* the federation of labor in Italy is moving heaven and earth to regain lost positions not only in the unions but in the general Italian political lineup...
...Besides, the WFTU still has on its side the French and the Italian federations of labor, in both of which the WFTU is dominant, though materially weakened...
...Truman attacked was more than •justified, the News reasoned, because soon after his remarks Henry Julian Wadleigh confessed he had worked as a spy with Whittaker Chambers...
...George Counts as a victim of "red-baiting," although he himself is an ardent "red-baiter," "should be an object lesson to others who may delude themselves that they will be secure from the fascism which they help to advance in the vain hope of buying immunity (Worker...
...This has led, unfortunately, to excesses which at times infringe upon the Bill of Rights, and which frequently please the communists no end by making martyrs of them...
...Nor can the CIO's decision to take part in the setting up of a new world labo* center free from Communist mesmerization be halted at that November meeting...
...Trade unionists and liberals have displayed a modicum of impatience about its prospective birth, s Jittery feeling generated largely by the time-honored notion that the American labor mill grinds pretty slowly where large scale action is concerned...
...or expect to ON THE OTHER HAND, the Daily Worker and its comrade-in-arms, the Daily Compass, have been quick to exploit high emotion for communist purposes...
...In another issue we hope to indicate some specific ways in which this can be done...
...Tempers are hot—-not over the threat of communism as an ideology— but over the threat posed by communists as conspiratorial agents of a strong foreign power...
...WHEN THE BLOW FELL on the WFTU last fall, its communist patron saints were for a time too shocked to offer a rational rejoinder...
...ANOTHER ANGLE comes to mind, in connection with the now assured emergence of the new world labor body —the possible impact of the CIO's withdrawal from the WFTU on the several party-line dominated unions in the CIO within the coming period...
Vol. 32 • June 1949 • No. 26
