Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index
Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
From The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 48, 29 November 1948, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The bitter conflict between two top bureaucratic cliques – the Murray machine which follows the foreign policy of the U.S. State Department and the Stalinists who serve the interests of the Kremlin – provided the keynote of the CIO national convention which began Nov. 22 in Portland, Oregon.
This struggle has been climaxed by CIO President Phi1ip Murray’s ruthless moves to break up the Stalinist machine by revoking the charter of the Greater New York CIO Council, key stronghold of the Stalinists in the CIO, and by launching a full-scale offensive to dislodge the Stalinists from unions under their control.
The decision to reorganize the New York City CIO under a Murray-appointed administrator was made by a pre-convention meeting of the CIO, National Executive Board on Nov. 20. The Board, by a vote of 38 to 5, declared the New York body guilty of “slavish adherence” to “the line and dictates of the Communist Party.”
It also charged that the New York CIO Council “has flagrantly disregarded and acted contrary to CIO policy, to the CIO constitution and to the CIO rules for industrial unions councils.” It instructed Louis Hollender, right-wing head of the New York State CIO, to take over the offices, funds, records and other properties of the city council.
Only five Stalinists on the national board voted against this decision. They are all acknowledged Communist Party members or supporters, including Joseph Selly, of the American Communications Association; Ben Gold, of the Fur Workers; Morris Pizer, of the Furniture Workers; Robert Weinstein, of the Public Workers; and James Durkin, president of both the New York council and the United Office and Professional Workers Union. Alfred Fitzgerald, Julius Emspak, Donald Henderson and William Lawrence – all long associated with Stalinist policies – abstained from voting. Harry Bridges was absent.
Before the devastating attack of the Murray machine, with which the Stalinists were closely allied until the Kremlin-Washington honeymoon went sour, the Stalinists just folded up. Durkin announced that the decision would not be appealed in the convention itself and would be accepted “in the interests of unity.”
In a speech at the opening session of the convention, Murray specified the real reasons for the all-out offensive against the Stalinists, with whom he collaborated until American imperialism decided on its “get tough” policy against Russia. He demanded to know if the Stalinists were going to “continue expressing their criticism and condemnation of the national CIO in its support of the Marshall Plan.” And he assailed the Stalinists, who backed Henry Wallace, for wanting “to drive Truman out of the White House.”
Thus, Murray served notice not only on the Stalinists but also on the genuine militants in the CIO that support of U.S. State Department policies and of capitalist politics, the Truman brand in particular, is compulsory. This is a deadly bureaucratic blow to freedom of political ideas in the CIO.
The Stalinists, for their part revealed themselves incapable of defending themselves from this attack. They themselves during their period of open support of U.S. imperialism were the most vociferous in demanding suppression and expulsion of those who “violated CIO policy” by opposing the no-strike pledge and Wall Street’s war.
At the CIO convention in 1946, the Stalinists abjectly voted for a Declaration of Policy “resenting and rejecting” the “outside interference of the Communist Party” in the CIO. They voted for a revision of the CIO by-laws, giving new dictatorial powers to Murray to intervene against local councils that do not accept his policies.
Murray made his most telling point against the Stalinists when he attacked them for their failures to organize the unorganized, citing the scandalously low membership of such Stalinist-led unions as the Office and Professional Workers and the United Public Workers. Here the Stalinists are completely vulnerable, for they have always sacrificed the needs of the workers to the requirements of the Kremlin’s foreign policy.
All indications are that the Stalinists would like to creep back into Murray’s favor and save their positions in the CIO. They are incapable of a principled fight, either on the question of union democracy or on broader political issues. The Stalinists are bureaucrats, knowing only bureaucratic methods. They cannot rally rank and file support iii a struggle against a more powerful bureaucratic rival.
Main Militant Index | Main Newspaper Index
Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
Last updated on 28 March 2023