LABOR RACKETEERING
Revell, Aldric
Labor Racketeering CRIME ON THE LABOR FRONT, by Malcolm Johnson. McGraw-Hill. 243 pp. $3.50. Reviewed by Aldric Revell THIS BOOK should be must reading for every worker who carries a union card....
...The old axiom that if a person puts nothing into an endeavor he gets nothing out of it, does not apply to unions...
...Johnson emphasizes that despite the presence of racketeering in the unions he enumerates, the preponderant majority of labor unions are decent and democratic...
...Written by a member of the American Newspaper Guild (CIO) Crime on the Labor Front is a masterful piece of reporting, pro-labor in its impact, yet pulling no punches in analyzing and describing how labor unions fall prey to labor racketeers and labor czars...
...If a worker puts nothing into his union he gets plenty of grief out of it, bad working conditions, physical abuse, and a monstrously low standard of living...
...3. In every one of the racketeering unions (mostly AFL), the evil results came about because of lack of interest on the part of the rank and file in their union activities, and indifference to democratic processes...
...But no one who considers labor a vital factor in America's democratic tradition and who looks to organized unions as the major bulwark against any form of totalitarianism, can come away from reading this book without fear of what will happen in this nation unless something is done about the conditions which lead to racketeering in the unions...
...The CIO, because it is a newer organization and because the constitutions of its affiliates provide for democratic procedure, has been fortunately free from hoodlumism, although until recently equally subject to ideological racketeering...
...It is the old-line business unions of the AFL that have spawned the rackets in the labor movement, and are still spawning them, albeit on a more sophisticated level...
...One reaches many conclusions from reading Johnson's fast-moving" and thoroughly documented book...
...He also points- out that the most vicious racketeering comes about because some hoodlum gets his hands on the union and by intimidation and bloodshed frightens the membership into accepting his dominance...
...The newspapers, too often against labor, like to editorialize about racketeering in unions but seldom mention the corollary that there could be no racketeering without the collusion of some businessman...
...2. In a majority of the cases the 36 The PROGRESSIVE eketeering did not start within union but was imposed by hood-from without to get at the lush treasuries the unions amassed...
...Johnson's book dramatically reveals that the ordinary union man must take a more personal interest in his union affairs if it is to con tribute its share toward the forward flow of trade unionism in America...
...Johnson puts his finger on the nub of labor racketeering when he says: "As is too often the case these powerful and vastly wealthy businessmen allowed themselves to be pushed around and intimidated by a couple of two-bit hoodlums rather than risk the possibility of foregoing a little profit...
...Among them: 1. In a majority of cases racketeering in labor unions is made possible by the collusion of businessmen who combine with the racketeer to mulct the consumer...
...There is nothing wrong with the racketeering unions Johnson describes that a strong dose of democracy in union constitutions won't correct...
Vol. 15 • May 1951 • No. 5
