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COLD WAR AND BLACK LIBERATION    CHENG

Mexican miners. And what organization had been accomplished in the South had been done mostly by them.27

To support this view, it is worth mentioning the work of at least one of the expelled unions, the United Public Workers. It had been greatly active in the struggle to eradicate discrimination in hiring and upgrading of black workers. In the nation's capital, specifically, the union had made some gains in its fight to end discrimination in government agencies where vast numbers of blacks were employed.28 

In fact, the CIO had become so much an integral part of being a Cold War warrior that one of its national vice presidents, James Carey, could freely participate at the American Legion's All-American Conference (1950) where he was quoted as declaring "We would even join the Fascists in a war to defeat the communists." This was a conference sponsored by old-time enemies of the labor movement, including the Hearst enterprise. Stetson Kennedy, writing in the Daily Compass, pointed out that while the left was being purged, right wing activities within the UAW were being tolerated. Kennedy, for example, reported that an Atlanta UAW local refused to con- tribute funds to other Georgia CIO locals' strike funds when such locals consisted of a majority of black members.29

Continuing its policy of conservatism in the area of civil rights, the assistant secretary-treasurer of the CIO, George Weaver, himself a Negro, in speaking before the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA-a group founded by a group of liberals who were fervently anti-communist) in April of 1950 argued for a watered-down stance on the battle for passage of FEPC legislation. His speech persuaded the body to adopt a compromise resolution.30

Too, the drive to organize the unorganized in the South never fully materialized. Certainly a concerted effort by either the CIO or AFL would have increased the number of blacks in the labor movement. Instead, black workers in particular and large numbers of white workers in general continued to be economically exploited. The wall of white supremacy gained a new lease on life, and this wall would not be massively confronted until the 1960's. In any case, it seems probable that the expulsions, and thus the fragmentation of labor, were in part responsible for the failure of labor to organize in the South.

Undoubtedly, this description is inadequate as far as portraying a full account of the disruption that took place within the labor movement-a disruption caused by the Cold War and a disruption that

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-26 11:25:24