Hard A-Starboard

To his National Maritime Union, convention-anchored at Cleveland, Skipper Joe Curran hollered from the bridge in rough and hearty iron-man style. His shout shivered the political timbers of some of his delegates. There was some question about whether he was really navigating--or whether he was acting under sealed orders. In any case, war between Germany and Russia called for a new compass course from Skipper Curran. Thereupon he flung N.M.U.'s helm hard astarboard, neatly following the latest zig in the Communist Party zigzag.

New course: ". . . We recognize the present struggle of Great Britain and the Soviet Union against the forces of Fascism to be sincere and requiring the full support of all liberty-loving people throughout the world." Up to that moment Britain's war, through Joe's rosy, red-rimmed binoculars, had been just another imperialistic bloodletting, and to hell with it. But now there was a Red star in the heavens for N.M.U.'s sailors to steer by."

After warning those below decks that mutineers plotted to start a scrap, cause arrests, then seize the Convention, Joe showed another glimpse of red underwear by roughly quashing an attempt to have him and other officers investigated on charges that there were Communists in the union's high places. Waiter Joe Doyle* of the S.S. Ancon, proponent of the resolution, asked for a trial board of outsiders, with one Daily Worker Red on it. No support came from the floor. From the chair: "This resolution is designed for one purpose--to smash the N.M.U." Doyle replied that its sole purpose was to get to the bottom of charges that the union "is filled up with Commies." Amidst jeering and booing, Waiter Doyle first offered to stand trial himself on his unionism, then resigned from N.M.U. This would cost him his job, Curran promised, because the Ancon's N.M.U. crew would not stand for his being aboard.

In the show Skipper Curran put on, the highlights were also rosy.

> Fellow Traveler Paul Robeson cut loose with some fine old wobbly rabble-rousers, the scalp-tingling Ballad for Americans.

> Hero of the convention was Australian Harry Bridges, gaunt, hot-eyed boss of C.I.O.'s West Coast longshoremen, now being investigated for deportation on the grounds that he was once a member of the Communist Party. Bridges rambled into the hall three days late, grinned happily amidst his welcome: confetti, dancing, hammerings, five minutes' yelling. N.M.U. had already gone on record against his deportation. Host Curran: "... a very distinguished citizen who has caused a great deal of concern in the National Association of Manufacturers."

Brightly framed by his own portrait on the stage, Bridges shouted: "We know who is the greatest threat to this world--and it's not the Reds. Our big job is to destroy the Fascist forces in America."

*Back in New York, Doyle found that his job was gone. Said he: "The crew always knew of my anti-Communist stand."

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