Carey on Communism

In Manhattan last week 2,500 trade unionists jammed into Mecca Temple to protest the execution by the Soviet Government of Henryk Ehrlich and Victor Alter, Polish labor leaders. This was the first U.S. gathering on the cause celebre since Soviet Ambassador Maxim Litvinoff had announced that Ehrlich and Alter had been liquidated for subversive activities (TIME, March 15). Cried A.F. of L. President William Green: "Shameless, wanton execution. . . ." New York's Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia called it "Russia's Sacco-Vanzetti case." Many another U.S. labor leader voiced outraged protest.

But for its effect on the U.S. labor movement the most significant speech was delivered by young (31) James B. Carey, secretary-treasurer of C.I.O.

Until recently C.I.O. has tried to hush-hush the split between its Communist minority and its vast rank & file. By the time hard-hitting, straight-talking Jim Carey was through, the hush was ended, and his own position as a top-rank C.I.O. officer was abundantly plain. Said he: "We believe that the shaping of a new world is the fundamental responsibility of labor in all countries, and we of the C.I.O. are dedicated to that goal. . . . Having made this clear, let me make equally plain that we do not view this program for common action as a one-way partnership. We recognize that the execution of Alter and Ehrlich has been a grave blow to our vision of world labor unity."

"It is my considered opinion," he said,

"that the activities of the Communist Party in this country, with its savage vilification of all who refuse to follow the Party Line, with its sudden reversals of policy and its ideological twists and turns, with its totalitarian habits of mind and ways of action, remain a major barrier to true American-Russian understanding."

Jim Carey spoke out of plenty of experience. Born in Philadelphia, he worked his way up swiftly from a job as laboratory technician to the presidency of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers. In 1941 he became a labor member of the Production Planning Board of OPM, in the period when the Communist Party still called the war another "imperialist venture." Largely as a result of Communist opposition, he was defeated for re-election as president of the United Electrical workers in the 1941 convention.

When Carey announced his intention to speak at the Temple meeting, cherry-red Joe Curran, head of the Maritime Union, promptly threatened to throw a picket line around the meeting. Carey dared him to try. Other Party Line followers in C.I.O. (the C.P. is strong in the Fur Workers Union, the Transport Workers, some locals of the U.A.W., the Aluminum Workers and the Newspaper Guild) fumed in silence. But for the vast majority of C.I.O. Jim Carey had cleared the air, had shown that friendship for Russia is one thing, Communism something else again. Said he last week in Washington: "I don't think the Communists are progressive. ... I think they go reactionary. But my fight is for democracy."

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