'PASSING THE WORD' - WHOSE WORD?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400550001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 31, 1967
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

C)YRGHT
tlu'lyt,'~./,
L'y GUS
J a
without comment. When asinine and fraudulent
s:atcments are made by public figures, the it
is necessary to speak up. The column by Jos. ?h
Curran, president of the National Maritine
Union, in the December Issue of "The Pilot"
calls for an answer.
The only truthful word in the whole piece
is the title "Passiflg the Word." The CIA's pro-
paganda department has a large stable of pro-
fe,sioral fag:iCiers who, for cw:h, grind out filthy
redbaiting fiction by the ton. In the trade union
movement this odious bilge is pumped for pub=
lication by a Jay Lovestone who holds down a
CIA desk in the front office of the AFL-CIO. This
drive] is published in the trade union press under
the name of any official who can be convinced,
paid off' or forced into the use of his name.
Red-baiting has always been a camouflage for
the crimes and `misdeeds of demagogues and
scounarela of all'types. It took a lot of redbaiting
to cover for the crimes of Hitler and Mussolini.
Senator McCarthy's redbaiting (not,Eugene, but
Joe) was the covet for the crimes of the Korean
War and an attempt to discredit our 'democratic
institutions, including our trade union move-
ment. And in retrospect one must say that the
damage to the trade union movement was in-
estimable.
It takes a lot of redbaiting to cover for the
crimes of the U.S. aggression against Vietnam.
And it took a wave of fanatical redbaiting for
the Meant'-Lovestone-Dubinsky clique to put
over an endorsement of these crimes of the john-
son administration at the recent AFL-CIO con-
vention.
Curran's column, entitled "The War in Viet.
nam-Part of America's Defensive Freedom,"
and his redbaiting speeches- at the convention
are also a part of this camouflage.
The column by Curran is a rehashing of all
the fraudulent filth that was ever peddled by
any anti-labor, anti-democratic demagogue from
Hitler to Hoover, from Eastland to Welch. It
must have been the sang~~ stable that shoveled
out the swill for the Ad t' inistration spokesmen
at the AFL-CIO convention, because it is diffi-
cult to say where Rusk's speech ended and Cur-
ran's began.
The ugly imperialist aggression against Viet-
nam, that is more unanimously condemned by
the world than any in history, is defended by
Curran. The demagogy he uses is that this is a
continuation of the struggle against fascism.
This will fool no one. U.S. Imperialism is doing
today what G. rman imperialism did under Hit-
ler. The forces who fought fascism are today
fighting against U.S. imperialism. The forces
who defended fascism are today defending U.S.
imperialism. Curran tries to cover up for this
brutal imperialist aggression by saying, "All
Communist countries, act as' if there were no
such things as national boundaries," Such idiocy
cannot cover up the undeniable facts that it is
U.S. imperialism that has crossed the boundaries
in Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Taiwan
and was instrumental in the crossing of the boun-
daries of Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
Curran's column talks about the danger of
"Communist global. take-over." This is a thread-
bare defense of the greatest "take-over" the
world has ever known. U.S. imperialism is now
Sanitized - Approved ~or kilea;~ P'! tbO v-00149R000400550001-0
RGHT
the largest colonial power in history; it exploits
more hu ::.n beings than. any ^nwer in
it has more war bases around the world than any
government in history. U.S. capitalism controls,
more industries, banks and utilities overseas
the world will not cover up this banditry.
Curran says, "Our hopes of worldwide solida-
rity of workers through the World Federation of
Trade Unions. were torpedoed by the Commu-
nists,"
It is too late for this big lie. Since the public
exposure of some of the operations of the CIA
no one will buy this hogwash. Because it is now
common knowledge based on exposure and open
confessions that it was U.S. big businesss through
the CIA, through Lovestone;-'Meany `and Dubin-
sky, that set out to split the trade union move-
ment. It is now common knowledge that. they,
spent sums running into hundreds of millions. to
buy, to corrupt trade union offcials around the
world to split the trade unions. The very latest
of these exposes and confessions by labor leaders
comes from Finland where trade Or' leaders
admitted being on the CIA payroll ',:. L:.c speci-
fic purpose'of splitting the trade unions of Fin-
land.
No amount of redbaiting is going to cover up
the fact that, because of boot licking subservi-
ence to big business by the AFL-CIO leadership,
the labor federation has become more isolated
from the trade -pions of the world than at any
time In histor: .: trade union movement of
the world h.-.s rejected the very redbaiting filth
that Curran now peddles.
In this column Curran trots out all of the old
ultra-Right fascist garbage 'such as "Moscow
gold," "subversion," etc.
It takes a lot to cover up an'ugly unjust war
of imperialist aggression. The Lovestone stables
pulled ' out all stops so Curran could say, "In
Vietnam it requires full scale war." And in his
speech at the convention, to add a call for, and
a prediction of an armed U.S. aggression against
the Republic of Cuba.
The redbaiting at the AFL-CIO convention
became the cover for the reactionary policies of
its top leadership, But in spite of this,, it took
five members of the President's Cabinet, army
brass and dozens of other government. officials
and the prepared redbaiting trash to keep down
the voices of. revolt even within a convention
whose delegates were largely hand-picked.
Curran is not "passing the word" of the sea-
. men. They will blush with anger and shame be-
cause the name of this great union is being used
as an instrument of the most reactionary anti-
labor forces in the world. Curran is "passing the
word" of the CIA, of big business. He has be-
come an instrument of a new wave of McCarthy-
ism. But he is an instrument of a lost cause.
Americans and American workers will draw
from their lessons gained in the struggle against
McCarthyisra of the fifties. Tiny know that red-
baiting is an instrument of splitting and weakT
ening of the trade unions. They know from their
own experience that workers can not win by
cringing and grovelling before the employers or
their spokesman in g-overnment,.
Wliy Curran has fallen for this ultra-Right
swill is not the most important question. That
he has , is important and it cannot be denied or
ignored.
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