Five Years of NATO

...To the extent that labor participates in vital NATO decisions and that NATO decisions reflect the policies of free labor, the leaders of free labor will be able to mobilize the millions of workers who still regard military instruments with fear and skepticism...

...Fearing further aggression in other parts of the world, Western Europe and America were pushed into rearmament on a national and inter-continental scale, which took its concrete form in NATO...

...In fact, the economic and social measures being propagandized now in Russia and the satellites are not in contradiction with an eventual war policy...

...Consequently, there is a danger that NATO will cease to play a role in the formulation of Western international policy...

...The terms of Article II have never been carried beyond the paper they arc written on...

...4. Provision must be made for the participation of trade-union representatives on the national and international levels of the NATO organization...

...It is my belief that this is no longer true and that we will face, either through disinterest or passive non-participation, if not open attacks then at least a period in which labor plays absolutely no role, not even in the negative sense of defending NATO...

...If NATO remains in its old, predominantly military form, it will either die a natural death or become a liability...

...The strengthening of NATO requires here a more liberal policy based on the principles of social progress, free trade-unionism and eventual national freedom...

...8. The planning of the economies of Western Europe or their various degrees of integration must take into account the question of the proper allocation of raw materials, so that price wars and inflation do not continue to eat at the vitals of the workers' purchasing power...

...This includes, if necessary, preparation for actual war...

...Economic and social factors were considered secondary to the military needs of the Western world...

...7. In all military programs, the economic capacity of countries must be regarded as more than a narrow statistical question...

...At the very least, there should be a Trade Union Advisory Committee on the highest levels of consultation...

...Up to now, the free trade-union movement, as represented by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and its national affiliates in the Western world, has taken a clear-cut position in defense of NATO-in spite of the fact that satisfactory working relationships were never developed to permit more labor activity in popularizing NATO objectives...

...It would be a serious mistake for us to merely repeat the same lyrics and music of the period of direct Soviet aggression...

...The only hope of meeting the new Soviet policy on an international level lies in really implementing for the first time Article II of the North Atlantic Treaty, which reads: "The Parties will contribute toward the further development of peaceful and friendly international relations by strengthening their free institutions, by bringing about a better understanding of the principles upon which these institutions are founded, and by promoting conditions of stability and well-being...

...It was fathered by the Soviet "leftist" policy which began with indirect aggression (as in Czechoslovakia) and then evolved into direct aggression (in Korea...

...If NATO is to remain a living organization, it must seriously consider, as soon as possible, the following proposals made by free labor: 1. NATO must be transformed into something more than a military and economic "regulating" unit...

...NATO should become a political clearing-house so that the free world can have a single and united policy...

...In the period from 1950 to the October 1952 Congress of the Soviet Communist party, the primary emphasis was on military and industrial rearmament...

...Meaningful consultations with labor unions can be a strategic factor in achieving production goals...

...But the Soviet "new look" most decidedly still includes what can be called indirect aggression, or "cold war," on the economic, social and political fronts...

...They may raise productivity, or perhaps win the Kremlin greater popular support in time of crisis or actual war...

...While the new policy permits the Kremlin to gain time through consolidation inside Russia and the satellites and in its relations with China, the Cominform (or whatever agency takes its place) never swerves from the basic aim of Soviet world domination...

...It is my opinion that, unless this new venture into political warfare is undertaken, we may see the eventual whittling away of whatever military machine has already been erected in NATO's first five years...

...The urgency of aggression and the needs of rearmament were such that no one felt the compulsion to push these issues to any serious point of conflict...

...NATO was at best a regulator of the speed of rearmament, rather than a real coordinating agency of all military, economic and political policies...

...Economic capacity is not merely a technical concept...

...The Soviet "new look," therefore, imposes new problems and tasks on the West...

...9. Greater attention must be paid to colonial or underdeveloped areas, especially those under the control of, or allied to, certain powers in NATO...

...Since the achievement of the Korean truce, the beginning of Indo-Chinese "negotiations" and "disarmament" talk, there has been a definite swing toward a policy which de-emphasizes the urgency of military factors...

...Such programs complement the perfecting of the Soviet industrial war machine...

...They will seek to eliminate conflict in their international economic policies and will encourage economic collaboration between any or all of them...

...2. NATO must become the instrument for planning and policy-making to meet Soviet political warfare...

...In the last year, Soviet policy has changed to the extent that it is safe to say that there is no immediate prospect of direct military aggression...

...6. In the placement of procurement contracts, serious consideration should be given to labor criteria as a means of increasing the degree of military and political security as well as winning the enthusiastic support of the workers...

...The various types of political warfare developed by Soviet front groups, especially in the field of labor and mass organizations, have once again become predominant in Soviet strategy...

...The quick build-up of adequate defenses against what was considered at that time an immediate danger of Soviet aggression was decisive...

...the human, or morale, factor is extremely important...

...5. Leading trade-unionists should be appointed to top positions in the NATO organization in order to give more effective attention to the problems of workers' standards of living, such as purchasing power, housing needs, manpower, migration, etc...

...The free trade unions cannot long support a policy in Western Europe which, consciously or unconsciously, becomes the means for the repression of potential allies...

...This danger has been heightened by the recent Soviet bid to enter NATO in order to neutralize and paralyze all Atlantic Community operations...

...Irving Brown has been the European representative of the AFL's Free Trade Union Committee since 1946...

...3. The activities of non-governmental organizations, especially in the field of labor, should be synchronized into this type of political warfare...

...They have remained, at best, a series of pious wishes...

...Such a new approach would have a direct effect on the role of organized labor in NATO...

...Today, NATO must become an important Western policy-making instrument in the political, economic and social spheres, while maintaining the strength of its military arm...