Take It Easy, But Take It

"THE TRUTH ABOUT SPAIN by Rudolph Rocker If there is any event that can bring about a rediscovery of inner strength on the part of organized labor and the libertarian elements of the world, it is the grand struggle against Fascism now being waged in Spain. After the unresisting defeat of the labor movement in Germany the effect of the heroic battle of the Spanish workers, peasants and intellectuals against the Fascist bandits is that of a refreshing thunderstorm. It is the first time since Fascism made it's appearance in Europe that the entire population of a country offered such a spirited resistance to imminent danger. That is why the example of these struggles is international in its significance, far transcending in scope the frontiers of one country. The desperate struggle is the common cause of all movements that do not want to fall under the bloody yoke of Fascism. Yet one must single out the surpassing promptness of action shown by the C.N.T. [ Confede...

"PARTY BUILDING IN THE NORTHWEST by Louis Sass, Organization Secretary, Northwest District In the Northwest the objective political conditions for the building of a mass Communist Party are extremely favorable. The struggle against reaction in Washington and Oregon has attracted large sections of the population to the progressive movement. The Washington Commonwealth Federation is broadening out more and more to include organizations and people holding various views on some political questions, but united on the immediate objective of defeating reaction and preserving and extending the much-curtailed democratic rights of the people. Labor rackateering, complete lack of democracy in unions dominated by the notorious Dave Beck, have created a genuine desire on the part of the majority of the members of the A.F.L. to do away with these practices and unite with the C.I.O. to represent a solid labor front against the lumber barons and Chamber of Commerce. The growth of the...

"There is a first class political mystery here at first sight - in fact, two. In the first place, liberalism is (or at least has been) overwhelmingly the dominant political ideology in the country. If we had Independent Socialists to the number of one half of one percent of those who espouse what they call liberalism, we would have a movement of the Left that could move American politics. Yet organized movements representing American liberalism have usually been little more than letterhead concoctions (like Americans for Democratic Action), the only partial exceptions being regional and temporary. Liberalism simply does not seem capable of existing in organized form. There must be a reason. The second mystery is that hardly any liberal even claims to be able to define what liberalism is. The exceptions try to do so by dint or vacuous generalities, like "Liberalism means Caring For People..." Now when a political tendency cannot explain itself to itself, there ...

Workers who contributed to the C.I.O. PAC received these pins. By this time C.I.O. leadership was firmly entrenched in the Roosevelt / Democratic Party machine, with several top C.I.O. leaders sitting on government councils and boards. The bureaucracy established the necessary apparatus to make business unionism viable again, paving the way for the 1955 AFL-CIO merger.