U. S. LABOR GOES ABROAD
BEICHMAN, ARNOLD
U. S. Labor Goes Abroad Naming of Kaiser Enhances Union Say on Foreign Policy By ARNOLD SEACOHMAN T MB 000ME and management of th* foreign policies of the United Mates have uniquely, since...
...Tobin, has been of utmost value...
...Certainly had the American trade union moveuient been less sophisticated the westward course of Soviet empire would today stretch far beyond Berlin, and American moral leadership abroad might have been totally ineffective...
...3. Subject to the overall foreign policy coordination of the State Department, be responsible for U. S. participation in the International Labor Organization...
...Jacob Protofsk.v, president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers...
...It handles an international educational exchange program, it maintains liason with ECA through the Office of ECA Labor Advisors, it represents the Labor Department in the .Interdepartmental Trade Agreements Committee...
...In part, this wa$ GUte to the traditional mistrust of diplomacy by our people (Mr...
...George Meany, AFL secretary-treasured...
...5. Responsible for, in collaboration with the Statu Department, of labor attache program of the Foreign Service...
...Michael Ross, head of the CIO International Department, and Matthew Woll, chairman of the AFL International Labor Affairs Committee...
...He has followed carefully the workings of the Department of Labor and particularly its Office of International Labor Affairs...
...The Office of International Labor Affairs, already of importance, will in time rise to a .strategic pinnacle in the battle against Stalinism...
...On this Trade Union Committee sit the ranking leaders, and in a way its diplomatic corps, of American labor, men to whom a trip to Geneva or Paris'has become little* more commonplace than a trip to Staten Island...
...The ILO, which weJoined belatedly in 1934, is growing daily jta importance (the UN on July 39 through its Economic and Social Council asked ILO to establish a faet-rflnding and conciliation commission to extend and protect trade union lights), and the Department of Labor is responsible for American participation in the 15 ILO meetings yearly...
...It advises the Army on labor policies and'problems arisim* in the administration of the occupied areas...
...The newly appointed Assistant Secretary of Labor Philip M. Kaiser, in charge of the department's international labor affairs, said recently: "I have been to Euaope several times in the laai year (IMS) and I think there is nothing snore strfirtna io an observer than fate tod that American labor support of our foreign policy and...
...George Delaney, AFL international representafive...
...Emil Rieve, president of the CIO Textile Workers...
...President Roosevelt realized the need for labor participation in foreign affairs, or, more accurately, the need for labor support, in strengthening our foreign policy...
...Since 1913, when a onetime Unite...
...Concomitant with this office, there was set up a year later a Trade Union Advisory Committee on International Affairs which, meeting with Secretary Tobin and Assistant Secretary Keiser seven or eight times a year, advises with them on international labor matters—American labor policy in Japan and Germany, for example, or ways of strengthening the labor attache program...
...AMERICAN LABOR has been fortunate' in the encouragement given by Schwcllenbaeh and Tobin to its participation in foreign affairs...
...Samuel Gomners had vision <rH»u£fl to nctively seek AFL participation in the formulation of American 1<»Ee*gjn...
...6. Responsible for reporting labor conditions abroad...
...AT LAKE SUCCESS;, it is well known that it was the strongly expressed opposition by the AFL's International Labor Affairs Committee, ably commanded by Matthew Woll and David Dubinsky, which precluded recognition of Fascist Spain and similarly it has been the continued effort of AFL international representatives which has made the issue of Soviet forced labor a number one item in the agenda of international conclaves...
...And it was insight and knowledge that has led to the information of a new democratic world labor federation...
...Today, the lit - partment of Labor has become u vital factor in the crusade for freedom, and, sine-** it has based itself on a fundamentally agreeable relationship with America's free trade unions, its evergrowing Influence may help avert another tragedy of European labor...
...It was out of this committee that there came an entente cordiale between AFL and CIO which, in turn, made' possible the creation of the new world democratic labor federation...
...One of its most important assignments is the Department's membership on two interdepartmental committee a -the1 Executive Committee on Economic Foreign Policy and the Committee on International Social Policy...
...Not until Hitler came to power did there appear meaningful stirrings of interest among trade unionists in foreign affairs and not until World War II did organized labor here become compeer to its counterparts in Western European countries where Socialist or labor governments ensured the fullest contribution of trade unionism in the councils of diplomacy...
...policy (particularly in the 1U22 disarmament conference in Washington) but basically neither the A Ft...
...These...
...To head this office came David A. Morse, now director-general of the International Labor Organization and as his executive assistant came Philip M. Kaiser, a Rhodes scholar from Wisconsin (where he studied under the revered Selig A. Periman) with a varied governmental background in international affairs...
...Today, the American labor movement — AFL, CIO, Railroad Brotherhoods—is united, as never before, in .influencing the direction of our foreign policy, whether it be vis-a-vis China, Spain, the Soviet Union or Israel, the Marshall Plan and even in the assignment of diplomatic personnal...
...What has made the Department of Labor an outstanding force in the democratic world's fight for freedom is that its international affairs personnel are knowledgeable men and that the de»partme-nt is seeking to implement the struggle against Communism with an affirmative appreciation of the ne*-d for a positive program, say, the application of Point 4, the Bold New Program of President Truman, It is an important force in bringing a sense of understanding here that the enemy is not democratic socialism but Stalinism and that the western Europe-ail countries which have, within a democratic framework, set themaclvea up as social democracies, are the most important bulwark we have against the fifth-column in western Europe...
...particularly, the Marshall Plan, does move to offset Arnold Beichman is a former newspaperman who specialised in labor coverage and is now a trade union publicist...
...David £)»jbinsky...
...True, American trade unionism has its own personal contacts in the upper reaches of the State Department and with labor movements abroad but in1 the day-to-day, hard, plodding operations, the Department of Labor is the first port of call...
...However, bis realization was accompanied by little more than visits to battlefronts by union men, a few minor appointments to Cabinet departments and that was all...
...What struck me very impressively was that every one of the workers there from every country in Western Europe got up and emphasised in his first paragraph, if not in his first sentence, that the tact that American* labor is supporting the Marshall Plan is to him proof conclusive that the Communist propaganda is a tissue of lies...
...I was in Luxemburg in March 1948 when the International Federation of Transport Workers had a meeting to aupport the Marshall Plan...
...Tliat encouragement was particularly visible in President Truman's appointment of Kaiser at Tobin's recommendation, an appointment made with the full suport not only of the Trade Union Advisory Committee but of businessmen as well...
...2. Represent the Department on the interdepartmental committee dealing with international affairs in the executive branch of the government...
...1LGWU president...
...The committee consists of James B. Carey, CIO secretary-treasurer...
...IN THIS DECISIVE ENTREE of labor into American foreign policy, the Department of Labor, under the late Secretary Lewis Schwcllenbaeh and now the able and energetic Secretary Maurice...
...nor its constituents were interested in foreign policy, except perhaps in tariff-making and immigration...
...Mine Workers official, William B. Wilson, became our first Secretary, the Department of Labor hasn't meant much anymore than It did from 1903 on when it was the Department of Commerce and Labor...
...than any other factor in the whole ptcfture...
...THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR has wide participation in international activities...
...4. Responsible for maintaining dayto-day contacts with American trade unions on matters of mutual concern in the foreign field...
...U. S. Labor Goes Abroad Naming of Kaiser Enhances Union Say on Foreign Policy By ARNOLD SEACOHMAN T MB 000ME and management of th* foreign policies of the United Mates have uniquely, since the founding Of the Republic, remained the property of capital and its proleetiianal diplomatic caste...
...In 1948, Congress gave it statutory membership on the Board al Foreign Service together with State, Commerce and Agriculture to make the rules for administering our foreign service...
...Today there are 28 fulllime and seven part-time labor attaches...
...It was insight, as well as knowledge, which enabled the American trade, union movement to see the need for the Truman Doctrine as well as the Marshall Plan and ECA ,to oppose dismantling of German plants or to arrange for long visits by staunchly democratic trade unionists from Europe to our country...
...and to frustrate the Communist propaganda abeul what the Marshall Plan is...
...DooI< y and Wltl fjogers accurately reaeeted this), a traditional isolationistn and, as far as labor turns concerned, an uudei - ttandaMe preoccupation with domestic affairs...
...7. Responsible for bringing labor views into consideration, formulation and implementation of American foreign policy, 8. Distributing a regular flow of information on labor development here for combatting Communist propaganda abroad...
...Thomas L. llarkins, representing the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers...
...in 1943, there were none...
...Today it has a wide variety of functions: 1. Coordinate, supervise and direct the iniernational work of the Department of Labor...
...This has largely come about because of the establishment in the Spring of 1946 by SchweMenbaeh of a bureau called the Office of International Labor Affairs...
...It supplies, at the request of the State Department, advisers to US delegates to UN commissions...
...Arthur Lyon, secretary-treasurer of the Railway Labor Executives Association...
...two Committees, their activities little known or publicized, concern themselves with the formation of government-wide US positions to be taken at meetings of international organizations...
Vol. 32 • August 1949 • No. 34
