BUREAUCRATS FEEL PRESSURE OF "FREEDOM NOW".
~ By Evelyn Seil . toe . -
DETROIT -- In mid-November the largest labor organization in this. country held its. national convention and adopted the strongest civil-rights policy in its history, This was the fifth convention of the AFL-CIO since 1955 when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged, The AFL, organized in 1886, covered skilled trades and craft unions, most of which have maintained long-standing discrimina-~ tion against Negroes to this day. The bulk of the unskilled and semiskilled workers remained unorganized until the 1930's when a split in the AFL led to the formation of the CIO, From its inception the CIO pursued mare militant organizing tactics (the great sit-down strikes) and cultivated healthier Negro-white relations in their integrated unions. As the CIO became more and more bureaucratized, the differences between the top AFL and CIO leaders softened until they were able to end their twenty-year separation with the merger in 1955, Today the AFL-CIO has about 130 affiliated unions which claim 12,500,000 workers or about seventy~three per cent of organized labor in the United States,
The resolutions passed at this most recent convention are not strike ingly different from those in the past but some significant departures from past practices were noticeable in the handling of the civil-rights discussion,
Plea for End to Discrimination
The resolutions called on all unions to eliminate "the last vestiges | of racial discrimination. from within the ranks of the AFL-CIO" (as of
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July 1, twenty-four of the 1350 national affiliated still had some segregated jJocals)? asked that unions "cooperate with our neighbors in the general community to assure every American the full rights of citizenship"; endorsed passage of the compromise civiierights bill now in Congress with the hope that the measure would be strengthened; urged the President of the U.S. to use his powers to ban discrimination in those hospitals financed with federal funds, .
The civil-rights issue was prominently featured during the convention in contrast to proceedings in past years. At the November 18 session the subject was made a special order of business and placed at the head of the agenda -- the first time the agenda has been so arranged.
Another first was the role played by A. Philip Randolph, head of the — Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the only Negro vice-president of the federation, Convention after convention has heard him speak from the floor about discrimination against Negroes within the trade-union movement, Four years ago his remarks provoked AFL-CIO President George Meany to storm at him, “Who the hell appointed you the guardian of all the Negroes in America?" Now Mr, Meany refers to him as “owe own Phil Randolph" and at . this convention, for the very first time, Randolph led the civil-rights discussion,
A "business as usual" note was struck, however, when Meany led the fight to defeat a proposal that Randolph's speech be adopted as official AFI-GIO policy. Randolph in his speech had urged Meany, Reuther (United Auto Workers president and former head of the CIO) and other labor leaders to go to "Birmingham, Danville, Houston and some areas of the North" to lead the fight for civil rights, He warned of "a growing feeling of alienation from the labor movement in the Negro community" which has been the staunchest supporter of unionism during the past few decades, Empha~ sizing the idea that it is in labor's own interest to strengthen its alliances with Negroes, Randolph stated, "As the Negroes have taken to the streets, so will the unemployed of all races. To discuss the civil~rights revolution is therefore to write the agenda of laborts unfinished revolution. The labor movement cannot ignore this under-privileged class, It cannot degenerate into a mere protective association, insulating the thaves! from the thave-nots,!"
The spotlight on civil rights at the convention is evidence of the increasing pressure of the Negro masses on all American institutions, True, the resolutions were general, limited and powerless to effect the practical changes needed in the day~to=day existence of Negro unionists and would-be unionists. Local autonomy of affiliated unions can still preserve traditional segregation patterns, The fine resolutions were mostly talk and talk is cheap, The AFL-CIO is still evading meaningful actions -- and action is what counts, However, the very fact that this cheap talk was squeezed out of the reluctant labor leaders is an indication .of the compelling force of the Freedom Now revolution,
' White Power Structure Concerned
The sudden importance of Randolph is part of the pattern adopted by the white power structure this past year to choke off the ever-widening
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militancy of the Negro masses. As the tide of civil-rights demonstrations surged forward in 1963, the powers-that-be saw that the traditional Negro leadership was not in control of the Negro masses but was, in fact, being forced to accommodate itself more md more to the militants in the streets, The white power.structure threw its weight behind those Negro leaders who. tried to channel the mass activities into traditional patterns of protest. with limited changes as their goal, When you read American newspapers you will see this type of Negro referred to as "a responsible leader." Responsible, that is, to the white rulers of this country.
What are the “irresponsible” leaders going? They are involved in the construction site demonstrations in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York, People lie down in front of trucks, climb onto cranes and generally disrupt work in order to protest job discrimination,
Here in Detroit the militant Group on Advanced Leadership [GOAL] has orgmized an International All-Trades Union to break down discrimination . in the apprenticeship programs in the skilled trades, The apprentice training program in this city is run by the skilled trades unions, the employers and the city's Board of Education, GOAL has organized picket lines around the apprentice school and has demanded that all city-contracted construction projects employ Negroes as forty per cent of their workers.
Directeur-Gérant: Pierre FRANK,