Birds of a Feather

One of the best friends Russia has in the U.S. is the C.I.O.'s big, noisy United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Union. Last week the U.E. gave a dramatic demonstration of its friendliness at its annual convention in Boston's Bradford Hotel.

As might be expected, Henry Wallace was there. While the delegates chanted "Wallace for President,"* Henry denounced the domestic and foreign policy of the Truman Administration: "The political errand boys of Wall Street . . . have conspired to weaken labor. They have set us on the road to depression at home and they are putting us on the road to war abroad."

Then Henry took a hand in the U.E.'s bitter inter-union fight. He gave his blessing to U.E.'s big bosses--Communist-line Secretary-Treasurer Julius Emspak and Director of Organization James J. Matles, and their stooge president, paunchy Albert J. Fitzgerald.

"Stab in the Back." The left-wing leaders did not need Wallace's praise; they had a tight grip on most of the 948 delegates (representing 600,000 members). But they used it to strengthen their attack on U.E.'s small group of right-wingers, led by James B. Carey, one of the U.E.'s founders and onetime president. Slim Jim Carey, now the C.I.O.'s secretary-treasurer, knew that he had not the slimmest chance of unhorsing the top trio, but he carried his fight to the floor. Matles and Fitzgerald gave Carey the full name-calling treatment: "Liar . . . stab in the back . . . tool of the employers. . . . Redbaiting ... no purpose save to capture control of the union for outsiders."

Carey's move to investigate Communists in the union died without coming to a vote. A six-to-one majority voted to boot him and his followers out of the union "if they persist in their disruption." The steamroller crushed Carey's opposition slate, easily carried Emspak, Matles and Fitzgerald into control for another year.

Carey was not intimidated; he fought on, trying to soften some of the union's pronouncements on U.S. policies. In the middle of one skirmish, up jumped a Careyman who said he was an ex-Communist. He shouted that the union "is controlled lock, stock and barrel by the Communist Party. . . . The only decisions which will come out of this convention are those having the stamp of approval of the Party." Retorted "Fitzy" Fitzgerald: "Trash."

"Like Vishinsky." What did come out of the convention was a furious reviling of U.S. aims in the world. Samples of the U.E.'s Red-eyed views: "The Government . . . has fallen under the control of Big Business. . . . By international Redbaiting and war scares they try to frighten us into patience under their extortionate greed. ... [It is] the policy of the trusts to re-establish a reactionary Germany as economic dictator over Europe. We declare to the people of the world that we will not . . . burn them alive with atom bombs to enforce the re-establishment of international monopolies."

A right-winger protested: "It sounds like Mr. Vishinsky." A left-winger defended: "It merely reflects the views of Henry Wallace." Many an observer could agree with both.

* Last week, in a speech at Portland, Ore., William Z. Foster, national chairman of the U.S. Communist Party, gave Wallace a pat on the back, indicated that he was Foster's choice for President.

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