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From Labor Action, Vol. 13 No. 45, 7 November 1949, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
As we go to press, the CIO convention is paving the way for its split. We can only speculate on what queer twists and turns the road will take; but the last stop is in sight. The Resolutions Committee, chaired by Walter Reuther, has voted to legalize expulsions of Stalinist-controlled unions. The United Electrical Workers, already half-way out when its Stalinist leadership terminated per-capita payments, has been expelled together with the Farm Equipment Workers.
Philip Murray calls for an end to Communist Party “influence” in the labor movement, echoing belatedly what militants in the CIO have demanded for many years, even when Stalinists went arm-in-arm with Murray himself. However, we witness now not merely an offensive against the ideas and influence of the Communist Party but a bureaucratically manipulated split through expulsions. It is clear: the CIO will expel Stalinist-led unions whose views conflict with majority policy. The CP splits because under no conditions will it desert Kremlin foreign policy.
The methods employed by Murray and Reuther, in this instance, undermine not only Stalinist influence but union democracy as well. That is why we speak out against the new principle of undemocratic super-centralization – we oppose expulsions of International unions which deviate from official CIO policy, including those controlled at the moment by the CP – just as we have always opposed the expulsion of union men (including Stalinists) merely because their political views conflict with the majority, and have resisted bureaucratic constitutional fiats which deny the right of minorities (including Stalinists) to run for office. We take ths position, not to defend Stalinism or its reactionary program, but to defend democracy in the unions.
The acute problem in the CIO is the question of Stalinism, but there is today a long-term tendency in the labor movement, as in the nation as a whole, leading away from democracy. Within all unions, the most progressive as well as the’most conservative, disturbing signs of the solidification of bureaucratism and the stifling of criticism are evident. Murray’s and Reuther’s convention methods can only strengthen these tendencies.
Bureaucratic methods of fighting Stalinism spill over into the labor movement as a whole. The new principles of super-centralization will make it difficult for militant unions like the UAW to initiate new tactics and a new political line. The new rulings would close the door to the United Mine Workers, which pursues its own policies. Within the CIO anti-democratic moves are encouraged ... the NMU prepares to expel outspoken oppositionists ... local CIO councils will adopt only canned resolutions prepared by officials ... local unions and local officers will be taught unquestioning obedience and conformity.
Democratic procedures in the unions can do more than shove Stalinism out of office. They can eradicate every trace of Stalinist influence and allow the labor movement to move forward to class-struggle policies. Organize factions ahd caucuses in the Stalinist unions; shine the light of free discussion on all questions; arouse the membership – these are the methods that drove Stalinism out of its UAW stronghold.
But such methods of struggle, relying on the rank and file, are foreign to Murray’s deep-dyed bureaucratic conceptions. If victorious in open democratic struggle against a bureaucratic Stalinist apparatus rank-and-file factions would not submit so readily to the conservative, Murray bureaucracy.
The split has come bureaucratically, but nevertheless it has come. We repeat what we have always said: Stalinism would turn the union movement into a simple tool of Russian imperialism; it is a tendency inside the labor movement but has nothing in common with the interests of the working class. The CIO, led by conservatives like Murray, supports the imperialist policy of the U.S. and collaborates with capitalist politicians. Nevertheless, in its own way it fights against the capitalist class, comes into conflict with its own government, and tries to squeeze out concessions for the workers. Faced by this split, every union militant must choose the CIO and fight to remain within it; but at the same time he must reject the antidemocratic methods of the CIO officialdom.
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