American Labor and the Threat of Communism
| Author | Philip Murray |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625127400118 |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
125
American
Labor
and
the
Threat
of
Communism
By
PHILIP
MURRAY
DURING
the
past
year
and
a
half,
the
influence
of
the
Communist
party
on
the
American
trade
union
movement
has
been
tremendously
dimin-
ished.
The
party’s
trade
union
mechanism
has
been
battered
by
a
series
of
blows
that
have
all
but
crippled
its
effective-
ness.
Eleven
national
unions
dominated
by
the
Communist
party
have
been
ex-
pelled
from
the
Congress
of
Industrial
Organizations,
whose
policies
they
were
flouting
and
whose
name
they
were
ein-
ploying
for
purposes
of
protective
color-
ation.
Hundreds
of
thousands
of
mem-
bers
of
those
expelled
unions
have
changed
their
union
affiliation
and
have
returned
to
the
ranks
of
the
CIO.
The
expelled
unions
are
almost
with-
out
exception
in
a
precarious
position-
a
fact
reflected
both
in
the
long
series
of
Labor Board
election
losses
and
mem-
bership
desertions
they
have
sustained,
and
in
the
diminished
state
of
their
un-
ion
treasuries.
There
is,
fortunately
for
the
national
welfare,
no
indication
of
a
reversal
of
this
trend.
In
fact,
there
is
every
reason
to
believe
that
before
much
time
has
passed,
the
influence
of
the
Communist
party
in
the
American
labor
movement
will
have
been
erased
once
and
for
all.
But
having
cleared
out
the
Commu-
nist
beachhead
in
the
American
union
movement,
we
as
a
nation
must
adopt
intelligent,
constructive
policies
that
will
forestall
any
renewal
of
the
growth
of
Communist
party
influence.
Such
broadly
protective
measures
are
not
a
matter
for
the
labor
movement
alone;
they
are
a
concern
of
the
entire
nation.
Our
democratic
institutions-labor,
civic,
governmental-will
maintain
their
free-
dom
not
by
anti-Communist
negativism
or
reliance
on
restrictive
legislation,
but
primarily
through
an
intelligent,
con-
structive,.
affirmative
program
of
re-
sponse
to
the
needs
and
the
problems
of
the
people.
A
healthy,
balanced
economy;
a
flex-
ible,
responsive
government;
a
militant,
vigorous
trade
union
movement-these
are
essential
if
America
is
to
keep
Com-
munist
influences
and
infiltration
at
a
harmless
minimum.
In
that
environ-
ment,
the
weeds
of
Communism
find
scant
encouragement
and
they
grow
little
if
at
all.
FAVORABLE
SOIL
FOR
COMMUNISTS
Looking
back,
one can
clearly
trace
the
development
of
the
Communist
threat
to
American
unionism.
Its
seeds
were
nurtured
in
the
1929
depression.
The
country’s
economy
was
completely
unbalanced
and
distressingly
sick.
Un-
til
President
Roosevelt
was
inaugurated
in
1933,
the
federal
government
and
many
of
the
state
administrations
showed
little
if
any
comprehension
of
the
economic
and
social
problems
that
were
engulfing
us.
Our
labor
organiza-
tions,
debilitated
by
years
of
repression
and
lack
of
recognition,
were
weak
and
fighting
merely
to
maintain
their
very
slender
existence.
It
was
a
situation
made
to
order
for
Communist
propa-
gandists.
They
could
point-as
they
certainly
did-to
a
deteriorating
situa-
tion in
which
nobody
in
authority
seemed
to
care
or
to
act
effectively
to
remedy
our
national
calamity.
In
that
atmosphere,
the
Communist
party
carefully
prepared
the
basis
for
its
future
infiltration
of
our
American
unions.
Earlier
efforts
had-
produced
To continue reading
Request your trial