Marxists’ Internet Archive: ETOL Home Page: Trotskyist Writers Section: Farrel Dobbs
Source: Socialist Appeal, Vol. 4 No. 48, 30 November 1940, p. 2..
Transcription & Mark-up: Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
ATLANTIC CITY – The recent AFL-proclaimed “spirit of victory” over the CIO has expired in the womb. After a spirited discussion on the second day of the CIO convention, the industrial union workers gave Frey, Hutchinson, Woll and their mouthpiece, Green, a clearcut answer: No capitulation to craft unionism! Forward to a ten-million-membered CIO! Throughout the sessions this theme was echoed by the delegates. The Atlantic City gathering voted to launch a large-scale CIO organization drive, with Ford, Bethlehem and aircraft at the top of the list.
Meantime, events in the Vultee strike were giving a clear indication of the forces of reaction gathering to oppose the CIO in this drive. Charges of “treason” have been levelled against the Vultee strikers. Congressmen, administration officials and the boss press have launched a many-sided attack on the union. The
Dies Committee has announced that it will investigate the strike. This announcement provoked a public statement by Attorney General Jackson that the FBI has already investigated and found that the Vultee strike was started and prolonged by “communists.”
Headlines in the boss press are beginning to brand all strikes as impediment, if not outright sabotage, of “national defense.” Comment is being introduced in the press through the Gallup poll and by other means to imply that public opinion is in favor of drastically curbing the unions. From various quarters demands are already arising for compulsory arbitration of labor disputes involving “defense” production. The appointment of Doctor Millis signalizes a sharp turn to the right by the NLRB. The increased participation of military officials in the mediation of labor disputes foreshadows an added use of the military boot against striking workers.
The AFL leadership will, no doubt, attempt new incursions into CIO territory in the mass production industries. Striving for ultra-respectability, the craft unions will play a miserable role in this effort. As in the past they will frequently furnish a pretext for the corporations and their government stooges, to represent struggles for wages and conditions as jurisdictional fights between unions. They will give some support to certain forms of anti-labor legislation and anti-labor White House policies when directed mainly against the CIO. In their eager desire to weaken the CIO, the craft unionists will forget that, by these actions they are also feeding on their own flesh.
Sidney Hillman, whose speech at Atlantic City reached a new low in grovelling before the powers that be and playing on every chord of reaction among the workers, will prove to be more of a detriment than a benefit to the CIO. Hillman made it clear in his convention address that above everything else he is out to help build the war machine.
Phillip Murray, the new CIO national president, has indicated ability to resist outright capitulation to craft unionism under government pressure. He also appears capable of going a certain distance in an organization drive in the face of the growing pressure from the bosses and their government. However, it is no accident that he placed the strongest emphasis on a demand for more “defense commissions.” one for each industry, in his remarks at the convention. Murray is a “labor statesman.” He is not a class-conscious proletarian fighter. He prefers to seek gains, for the workers at the conference table of “government, industry, labor and the consumer.” He places this method above trade union action, instead of using such forms of pressure as a supplement to it. Murray will not go very far along the road of class struggle, and, as far as he does go, he will step very gingerly.
John L. Lewis is still a powerful factor in the CIO despite his withdrawal from the presidency. What has been said above of Murray applies with equal force to Lewis. The two will collaborate very closely in the coming period. While Lewis may influence Murray to greater militancy against the AFL and towards some increase in tempo in the projected organization drive, they will find no disagreement between themselves on fundamentals. Murray and Lewis see eye to eye on the question of relations with the bosses and the bosses’ government. Their differences on the question of supporting Roosevelt were only a disagreement on tactics.
The Stalinists will find themselves in a less comfortable position in the CIO under Murray. Realizing this, they made a ridiculous spectacle of themselves at the convention trying to keep their “Draft Lewis” movement on its feet. However, the best they could do for themselves was to get Joseph Curran elected as a vice-president. Murray will prune quite a few of the Stalinists out of the CIO apparatus but there will not be an immediate wholesale purge. As a matter of fact, the present position of the CIO indicates that Murray, just as Lewis before him, cannot afford to indulge in any form of outright red-baiting.
The most encouraging sign of CIO strength lies in the spirit and determination of the membership, as reflected in a somewhat distorted form at the convention. The spirit of class solidarity among the industrial union workers was best illustrated by the attitude of the Negro delegates at the convention. Their role at Atlantic City stood in sharp contrast to the role of the Negro in the lily-white past of the craft unions.
The Negro delegates at the CIO convention spoke without any apparent feeling of restraint or subservience. They felt that the CIO was really their union and that the convention was their convention. Every Negro delegate who took the floor, and there were a number of them, poured out the pent-up wrath of his persecuted race. And of equal importance – the Negro delegates were treated as equals by the white delegates. This factor in itself reflects the real strength of the industrial unions of the mass production workers.
While their delegates were at the convention, the CIO members back home were busy carrying on the struggle against the bosses. The wave of job actions among the industrial union workers continues to rise. They are winning an adjustment of their grievances and improvements in their working conditions. They are throwing the finks out of the plants; they are beginning to go on strike for contracts. The industrial union workers are clearing the decks for action. The class struggle will grow sharper in the period ahead.
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