LETTER TO THE HONORABLE GEORGE C. LODGE FROM ALLEN W. DULLES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R001000130010-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 18
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 11, 2003
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: October 28, 1959
• Content Type: LETTER

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The Honorable George C. Lodge
Assistant Secretary of Labor,
International Affairs
U. S. Department of Labor
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Lodge:
28 October l95~
I appreciate your thought in sending me a reprint of your
article, "Labor's Role in Newly Developing Countries. " As a
matter of fact, I had read the article and had found it of cqnsid-
erable interest. You have presented a concise statement of the
nature of labor organizations, showing how a few labor leaders
can play significant roles in countries where the masses are
unorganized. Such a statement is important for those in Oovern~
:Went who are concerned with these problems. I think your
article points to several avenues which deserve the attention of
students of this subject and I hope it will stimulate greater
interest.
Sincerely yours,
/S/
Allen W. Dulles
Director
STAT
ILLEGIB
This copy prepared by rnfb for DCI and ER file.
Originator: I0/44 ve (26Oct59) did not provide copies fox DCF
-ER file /basic
CI filewI
L(E ECUM E REGISTRY FI.
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(OHFIDEHTIA .
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
VIA: Deputy Director (Plans)
Chief, Psychological and Paramilitary Staff
SUBJECT: Reply to George Lodge's letter enclosin ,i
his recent article on International Labor.
1. This memorandum suggests action on the part of the DCI.
Such action is contained in paragraph 3.
2. George Lodge, on October 2, 1959, sent a reprint of his
article entitled "Labor's Role in Newly Developing Countries"
which appeared in the July 1959 issue of Foreign Affairs.
An interim reply was sent to Mr. Lodge on October 5.
3. Attached is a letter to Mr. Lodge for the DCI's signature
thanking him and commenting briefly on the article.
25X1
CORD MEYE , JR.
Chief
International Organizations Division
Attachments:
1 - Letter to Mr. Lodge
C FID"L: TI L
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5 OCT ;95y
J J. bAUSS r r i l ]L . be o of the sity fw a
f sat, wbw h r*tw-40 to his vfliam, :
vM bring it to 4s st it .
>3s~
signed
s to the I)irec or
STAT 0/DCS bak(5 Oct. 59)
Distribrxtion:
Orig.&1 Addressee
vii DCI fur void file w/basic & encl.
1 - AAB
STAT
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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
The Honorable Allen W. Dulles
Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Washington 25, D. C.
VJ _, o "7/--- -1
It occurred to me that on Wednesday I may not have
been entirely clear about the significance of organiza-
tions of workers to the development of our foreign policy.
Time ran a little short; and just in case you might like
a somewhat fuller exposition of the matter I am taking
the liberty of attaching an article which appeared in the
last issue of Foreign Affairs.
It was an honor for me to appear before the OCB,
and I hope that the Department of Labor can be of in-
creasing usefulness to the Board.
Sincerely yours,
Georke CC Lodge
Assistant Secretary of Labor,
International Affairs
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 LABOR'S ROLE IN NEWLY
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
B GEORGE C. LODGE
Reprinted from
FOREIGN
AFFAIR S
AN AMEEJCAN QYAItTE$LT REVIEW
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
AN AMERICAN QUARTERLY REVIEW
July 1959
The Senate in Foreign Policy ......... Hubert H. Humphrey
The Search for Stability ................ Henry A. Kissinger
Mao, Marx and Moscow .................... G. F. Hudson
The Chinese Communes: Big Risks for Big Gains
Albert Ravenholt
Economic Revolution in France ............. Antoine Pinay
The Soviet Population Today ....... :.... Warren W. Eason
For a Regional Market in Latin America ........ Galo Plaza
Where India Faces China ........ Hamilton Fish Armstrong
The Wealth of the Sahara ............... Jacques Soustelle
White Minorities in Africa ............... Margery Perham
Change and Conflict in the Horn of Africa .... Leo Silberman
Labor's Role in Newly Developing Countries
George C. Lodge
Two Centers of Arab Power ............ Frederick Harbison
Recent Books on International Relations .. Henry L. Roberts
Source Material ............................ Ruth Savord
HAMILTON FISH ARMSTRONG
Editor
PHILIP W. QUIGG
Assistant Editor
Editorial Advisory Board
ALLEN W. DULLES WILLIAM L. LANGER PHILIP E. MOSELY
ALFRED M. GRUENTHER JOHN J. McCLOY ISIDOR I. RABI
. GEORGE F. KENNAN HENRY M. WRISTON
58 East 68th Street ? New York 21, N. Y.
Subscriptions, $6.00 a year, post free to any address.
Copyright, 1959 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
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LABOR'S ROLE
IN NEWLY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
By George C. Lodge
THE struggle for economic improvement and political free-
dom in which enormous sections of the world are now en-
gaged may well be the most far-reaching effort in human
history. There is one aspect of this battle which has not been
widely recognized, and that is the important participation in it
of organizations of workers. Peoples throughout Asia, Africa and
Latin America are looking more and more to labor unions as an
instrument for improving their economic, social and political
conditions.
It is misleading to think of these trade or labor unions in the
newly developing countries as bearing any close resemblance to
labor organizations in the United States; in general, they have
different origins, purposes, methods and objectives. The differ-
ences have caused much confusion. Westerners have been led to
ask: Of what importance can a labor union of several thousand
men be in a country of many millions which is industrially un-
derdeveloped? To answer this, we must first examine some of the
general characteristics of workers organizations in the countries
in question.
In the first place, these unions were not born in industrial
revolution as the result of an urgent and specific need of a con-
gested mass of factory workers for improved wages and working
conditions. In their origins, they do not resemble the unions of
England, the United States and Europe. Generally, labor unions
in the less developed parts of the world were superimposed on a
basically rural society for political or ideological reasons. They
have developed as rural cooperatives, social welfare organiza-
tions, political parties, semi-fraternal groups and, in a few in-
stances, rudimentary industrial unions, spreading to the mines,
oil fields, railways and textile factories.
These unions, however, were not the result of worker initiative
and could not have been, given the economic and political envi-
ronment in which they emerged. They did not spring from a mass
movement. Rather they were held out to a not unreceptive rural
society by political parties, government, reformers and intellec-
tuals of all sorts. Many union movements, particularly in Asia
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
and Africa, rose on a wave of nationalism, becoming the spear-
head of anti-colonial movements toward political independence.
Others were impelled by humanitarian or ideological forces, and
some by the belief that unions were important symbols of the
modern industrial age-a requisite to admission as an equal among
the industrialized nations. It is easy to see how these unions, with
no firm roots in the wills of their members, could become a pow-
erful political instrument in the hands of clever leaders, particu-
larly as economic dislocations and social eruptions increased with
the spread of nationalism and the coming of industrialization.
International Communism oflquickly tical power. a significant num-
ber for the seizure political
of new nations, however, the strongest anti-Communist ele-
ment has come to be the trade unions. Often they have been
realize
not utopla more dreadful form of colonial ex-
the first utopia but a new and
ploitation.
This is clearly true, for example, in India, where the free trade
unions are fighting a desperate battle against the Communist-
controlled All India Trade Union Congress. Last summer some
of their members were shot down by police during a strike in the
Communist state of Kerala. The plantation-workers' unions in
Asia are another effective force against Communism. These
unions in Malaya and India today have a broad base and have
developed representative leadership. They are a far cry from
being rootless instruments of "outside" interests. The members
of the powerful Malayan plantation union, coming largely from
the jungles and mountains, were exposed to Communism during
the bitter guerrilla fighting that began in 1948. Many of them
lost their homes and families to the Communist invaders. They
know Communism for what it is and have developed strong
trade unions not only to advance their economic welfare but to
protect their country's independence.
Ti
In many countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the most
important influence on the people is organizations of workers.
Mr. Nasser was quick to appreciate the political significance of
labor in his attempt to achieve power in the Arab world. When
the existing union leadership in various Arab countries proved
reluctant to cooperate with him, he organized the International
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LABOR'S ROLE IN NEW COUNTRIES 3
Confederation of Arab Trade Unions as an instrument for reach-
ing directly from Cairo to the workers of other Arab countries.
In the Sudan, an agricultural country almost one-third the
size of the United States, the transport and communication sys-
tem is of vital importance. After World War II the railroads,
river boats, docks and hotels along the Nile were combined into
a single transportation unit. It is not surprising that this unit
was the target for the first unionization drive in Sudan which
lasted from 1946 to 1955. Last year, when all union activity was
outlawed by the Sudanese Government, there were zo,ooo work-
ers in this transportation union, which plainly exerted consider-
able strategic control over an industrial complex of basic sig-
nificance to Sudanese economic and political development.
Going west to Tunisia, Bourguiba's Neo-Destour party could
never have come to power and pressed so successfully for inde-
pendence and social improvement had it not been for the strong
support of organized labor. In Morocco, the National Federation
of Labor emerged in the independence movement as a powerful
political force. Through its attachments to the masses of the
Moroccan people, it is a vital element in the political situation
there today.
President Nkrumah and his Convention People's Party suc-
cessfully secured the support of the labor movement in Ghana
in 1954, both for domestic political reasons and to protect it from
Communist influence. The career of John Tettegah illustrates the
central role trade unions play in the affairs of many emerging
countries of the world. As general secretary-treasurer of the
Ghana Trade Union Congress, Tettegah also serves on the cen-
tral committee of Ghana's ruling party. He carries great weight
in labor affairs within Ghana, and in recent years has become
recognized on the international scene as a spokesman for African
labor.
The rise of African nationalism is well symbolized by the 7,9-
year-old Kenya labor leader, Tom Mboya. First as a general
secretary of the Kenya Federation of Labor and then as Chair-
man of the All-Africa People's Conference at Accra, Mboya
emerged as one of the most able leaders of the African independ-
ence movement. Today he is also a member of the Legislative
Council of Kenya. Mboya's rise is a good example of the new
significance of workers organizations and their leaders. Born on
a sisal estate in Kenya's highland area, the son of illiterate
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
parents, he was appointed a Nairobi city sanitary inspector in
1951, but was outraged to find his salary was a fraction of that
of a European holding the same post. He joined the African Staff
Association, consisting of municipal employees, and in 1952 be-
came its president. He converted this association into a union
and the same year joined a political group, the Kenya African
Union. His rise to a position of importance in Africa today is
due largely to the substantial support he mustered as an organ-
izer of African workers.
Se'kou Toure, who led the independence movement in Guinea,
Africa's newest independent state, also got his start in politics as
a labor leader. It was indeed as a labor leader that he first dem-
onstrated his ability to command an almost religious devotion
from his followers. It was his well organized labor movement
which gave him the power to force independence.
In Latin America, too, we see much the same situation. In
Mexico, for example, trade unions today are a powerful political
force. President Lopes Mateos, former Minister of Labor, was
elected with strong labor backing, and the trade union movement
helps to provide popular support for the present government.
The labor movement constitutes more than 25 percent of the
Chamber of Deputies and has similar representation in the Sen-
ate. As the country continues to industrialize, the unions will
certainly gain strength and acquire a broader base among the
workers.
In Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, in Argentina and Bolivia,
the trade unions are playing a key political role, constituting as
they do the most important mass organizations in those coun-
tries. In Peru, the trade union movement, most of which is allied
with the Aprista party, is trying to reconstruct constitutional
government after the Odria dictatorship of almost a decade.
In Costa Rica, Luis Alberto Monge is presently one of the
principal leaders of the opposition in the Costa Rican legisla-
ture. Mange got his start in the trade union movement, having
served in recent years as president of the principal labor organi-
zation in his country and as general secretary of O.R.I.T., the
I.C.F.T.U.'s (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions)
regional organization in the Western Hemisphere. Together with
Costa Rica's ex-President Figueres, Monge is one of the more
articulate opponents of dictatorship in Latin America.
Juan Lechin, Bolivian labor leader, was one of the two princi-
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LABOR'S ROLE IN NEW COUNTRIES 5
pal figures in the 1952 revolution. Today he heads the opposition.
While Lechin is a senator, he remains executive secretary of
Bolivia's central trade union organization and head of the Fed-
eration of Mine Workers.
In order to understand more clearly how a labor union of a
few hundred thousand-or even a few thousand-can be effec-
tive in a country of millions, let us look at India today. This is
appropriate because India's labor situation exemplifies that of
many Asian and African countries, and also because it has become
of critical importance to the successful development of that
country.
While India has a population of about 400 million people and
a land mass almost half as big as that of the United States, it is
a country being led today by an exceedingly small group of men
and women. Like the founding fathers of our own country, these
are patriots of exceptional intelligence, dedication and selfless-
ness who are struggling against what often appear to be over-
whelming odds. This group of men and women, who literally can
be counted in the thousands, are very much a part of India and
yet are clearly distinct from the mass of Indian people. They
stand out as the only element in Indian society capable of making
the tremendous exertion necessary for development. They are
pulling India almost miraculously forward.
Assuming that this group of leaders numbers seven or eight
thousand, I think it is also probable that those capable of sup-
porting them in any effective way number no more than seven
or eight million. In reaching this figure, we start with a total
population of some 380 million, of whom 330 million live in the
more than 6oo,ooo isolated villages and have almost no contact
with the main stream of Indian political and economic life. This
leaves about So million Indians who live in urban centers. Given
a literacy rate of 17 percent, the figure of eight thousand leaders
with eight million capable of effectively supporting them does
not appear unreasonable.
Within this context it becomes a little clearer how an active
organization of say zoo,ooo men and women, under perhaps 25
dedicated leaders, can have a profound and lasting influence. This
is especially true if, as is usually the case, their efforts are di-
rected toward several industries such as steel, transportation,
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6 FOREIGN AFFAIRS
communications or longshore operations, which are of great
strategic importance to the whole nation. Thus a relative handful
of people, promising progress toward broadly popular goals, can
be of the utmost political and economic importance. In the
developing countries, numbers do not count so much as leader-
ship and organization.
In India there are three principal federations of worker unions,
each tied to its own political party. First, there is the Indian Na-
tional Trade Union Congress (I.N.T.U.C.) with about 1,zoo,ooo
members. This federation grew out of the Ahmedabad Textile
Labor Association founded some 30 years ago. Gandhi himself
played an important role in its early days. Many of the present
leaders of the T.L.A. and I.N.T.U.C. were close friends of the Ma-
hatma, served jail terms with him and practice religiously his
creed of non-violence and peaceful understanding. The chief
union in I.N.T.U.C. is still the Ahmedabad Textile Association,
which is in many ways a model labor union. Its grievance pro-
cedure, community activities and relations with management
would compare favorably with any union anywhere, but it must
be said that it is an exceptional operation in Asia. The T.L.A.,
and later the I.N.T.U.C. federation, grew with the independence
movement and in its early years was largely a political force,
although it also did much to improve the welfare of the textile
workers of Ahmedabad. After independence, I.N.T.U.C. contin-
ued to be closely associated with the Congress Party and its
leaders have alternated between the union and high government
posts or positions in Parliament. The present Minister of Labor,
for example, Gulzarilal Nanda, was the former general secretary
of the Textile Labor Association and, as such, a leading official
of I.N.T.U.C.; and the present president of the Association,
Khandubhai Desai, was a former Minister of Labor. There is
thus a strong bond between I.N.T.U.C. and the Congress Party.
Numerically the next largest labor federation in India is the
All India Trade Union Congress (A.I.T.U.C.) with about 900,000
members, which is allied to and controlled by the Communist
Party. Its leaders are also the leaders of the Communist Party
and, while it pretends to certain economic and social aims, it is
largely a political movement, plainly directed from the Soviet
Union. It is making a particular effort to gain control of the
Indian steel industry which is emerging in the wilderness of
Bihar and Orissa around Calcutta. Through A.I.T.U.C., the
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LABOR'S ROLE IN NEW COUNTRIES 7
Communists inspired a violent strike a year ago at the 50-year-
old Jamshedpur steel mills of the Tata Iron and Steel Company,
importing large numbers of paid organizers. They are now ac-
tively seeking to gain control of the three new government plants
currently being put into operation at Durgapur, Rourkela and
Bhilai, with the help of the British, Germans and Russians re-
spectively. There is no question that control of this industry and
the coal and iron mines flanking it will be a key factor in the
future development of India.
The third principal federation of workers in India is the Hind
Mazdoor Sabha (H.M.S.), with about 300,000 members, which
is tied to the Socialist Party. This federation has a number of
bright and vigorous leaders who have succeeded in building sub-
stantial strength particularly on the docks of Calcutta and Bom-
bay, which strategically are of great importance.
India's principal labor federations are thus bound to the three
main political parties and there is little likelihood that this situ-
ation will change in the foreseeable future. An aspect of this rela-
tionship is that the trade unions of India, and of many other
Asian and African countries, form the most important contact
between the political parties and the mass of the people. Unions
are often conceived as being a combination of the Red Cross,
Community Chest, Elks Clubs, an American-type trade union,
a political party and in some ways a religious organization. Their
functions and activities reach into every phase of urban life, in-
cluding politics, housing, hospitals, labor-management bargain-
ing, public parades, demonstrations, schools and colleges. Of
these, the collective bargaining function is by no means the most
important.
Although the political significance of these labor movements
is what makes them especially distinctive from our point of view,
their reason for being and the source of their strength lie beyond
politics. They are sustained by the determined desire of the
people of the developing nations for an improvement in their
way of life, for a square meal where there has been starvation, for
a hospital bed where there have been death and disease, for a
decent house where there have been filth and squalor, for freedom
and dignity where there have been domination and servility. It
would be a great mistake to look on these unions as merely poli-
tical tools to be played with as such. Their roots lie deep in the
hearts of the people who are native to these lands. They are the
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8 FOREIGN AFFAIRS
first true and wholly indigenous organizations which many of
these peoples have ever known and they are prized for this
reason. They are followed with dedication, and are looked to for
a solution of all ills.
The Communists realize this full well and, as Vice President
Nixon has noted following his trips to Africa and Latin America,
they are making great efforts to win over not so much govern-
ment and business officials, who may be in power today and gone
tomorrow, but union leaders, who, by the very nature of their
organizations, are likely to grow in influence, as industrialization
progresses.
We would be seriously deluding ourselves if we did not recog-
nize that the Communists have increased substantially their in-
fluence in the labor movements of Asia, Africa and Latin Amer-
ica. They are concentrating on controlling the workers in key
industries throughout all of the newly developing nations. Large
numbers of young labor leaders are invited to Moscow each year
for a highly developed course of indoctrination. When these men
return to their native lands, they are revered if for no other
reason than that they have traveled far off in an airplane, an
experience which very few have had. They are frequently ad-
mired and listened to when they preach that the way to quick
development, the way to easy money and full bellies, is not the
slow, uneven processes of democracy, but by the shorter Russian
route of totalitarianism which has accomplished wonders in a
few decades.
The day has long since gone when relations with other coun-
tries can be effectively carried on solely in the traditional "dip-
lomatic" way at the usual "diplomatic" levels. The power of
Africa and Asia is often not in the hands of government officials,
but rather in the hands of relatively obscure native leaders who
first appear on the national scene as leaders of a workers organi-
zation.
What does this mean in terms of American interests?
In the first place, a visitor to India or to another country of
Asia or Africa is apt to be struck by the degree to which the
labor movement of the United States is admired. This respect
is enhanced by the misconception abroad of the nature of this
country and its economic system.
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LABOR'S ROLE IN NEW COUNTRIES 9
The United States is described by others, and unfortunately
even by some Americans, as a "capitalist" nation. To the vast
majority of the world's people this word connotes something very
different from the economic system and society which have in
fact evolved in the United States. George Romney, President of
American Motors Corporation, wisely observed earlier this year:
"Today we still talk about `capitalism' without fully realizing
this term is a hand-me-down from an Old World society and our
dead and gone robber-baron era in which a few controlled and
exploited the efforts of many."
To the peoples of less industrially developed countries, the
word "capitalist" conjures up exploitation, imperialism and colo-
nialism. They are reminded of their own private employers or
capitalists who in many cases strongly resemble the robber
barons of the last century. Many people abroad do not under-
stand the extent to which our economy meets the need of the
consumer. And few realize the social consciousness which moti-
vates many activities of United States business, or comprehend
the intricate power balance around which has grown our unique
variety of collective bargaining.
Most of all, perhaps, there is misunderstanding about the role
of government in the American economy. In the less developed
areas of the world, and even in some areas of Western Europe,
there is little awareness that government expenditures for var-
ious social insurance programs in the United States are around
$12.5 billion annually; that another $25 billion or more is ex-
pended each year by Federal, state and local governments undo r
various other social welfare programs, such as public welfare,
public health and medical care, child welfare, aid to veterans,
public housing, and education; that, in addition, contributions
to private health and welfare funds are currently being made
at a rate of $8 billion a year; and that the total of $46 billion
amounts to roughly a tenth of the current gross national product.
Few Asians or Africans have any idea that the United States
has an elaborate unemployment compensation system and few
realize the extent of our agricultural programs and Federal power
establishments. They are astounded by the figures published by
Professor Galbraith of Harvard in Foreign Affairs last year: In
the United States zo percent of the gross national product is dis-
posed of by the various levels of government; in India only io
percent. Such figures lead one to wonder about the meaning of
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io FOREIGN AFFAIRS
the words "capitalism" and "socialism" as applied to the United
States and India today.
Be that as it may, we are dubbed a capitalist country with
all that it implies. At the same time, however, it is recognized
that American workers have the highest standard of living of
any workers anywhere and that in the United States there is the
widest distribution of wealth. This seeming paradox is explained
in the mind of, say, an Indian, an Indonesian or a Moroccan by
assuming that the American trade unions have singlehandedly
achieved these high standards for the American workers by
wresting unparalleled benefits from "capitalist" hands.
This reasoning, added to the individual respect which many
of our trade union leaders have gained in the course of their ex-
tensive travels, has meant that generally no aspect of the United
States is more admired by the people of Asia, Africa and Latin
America than our trade unions. This admiration provides an im-
portant avenue for the development of mutual understanding
between the United States and the newly developed nations. It
also provides a source of strength in the effort to organize free
political and social institutions in those countries.
This fact should invigorate popular support for the Govern-
ment's exchange programs which each year bring some goo trade
unionists from abroad for a three, six or nine months' stay in
the United States, and permit top American union leaders to go
abroad. Through these programs an African union leader can
see the progress that American unions have made in eradicating
discrimination; an Indonesian rubber worker can learn the basic
methods and techniques of collective bargaining, union organi-
zation and industrial relations; a Venezuelan oil worker can see
with his own eyes that the Communist representation of America
as a land run by and for the exclusive benefit of money-hungry
"capitalists" is just not so. The leaders and members of foreign
workers organizations can see first hand the extent to which
American labor has confounded the too-year-old prediction of
Karl Marx. Likewise, representatives of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the
United Steelworkers, the Oil Workers and other unions can un-
derstand better the problems of labor in less developed lands,
can learn from them and hopefully can help them in their quest
for economic improvement.
A second policy consideration relating to labor organizations
abroad is the importance of our 48 labor attaches throughout
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LABOR'S ROLE IN NEW COUNTRIES II
the world, and of other foreign service officers who are engaged
in reporting the activities of workers organizations and establish-
ing useful contacts with them. We need to increase the number
of exceptionally competent trade unionists who are taken into
the foreign service to serve abroad as labor attaches. Union ex-
perience can be extraordinarily valuable in establishing contacts
and relationships in many countries of the world. Young men
with an academic background in industrial relations or with gov-
ernmental experience in the manpower field should also be re-
cruited for labor work abroad. As workers organizations grow
in political and economic significance, increasing importance will
be attached to the work of labor officers in the Foreign Service.
Third, the rising importance of labor organizations means that
American support of the International Labor Organization must
keep pace with its growing responsibilities. Our participation
must constantly be measured against the help the world seeks
from the I.L.O., a specialized agency of the U.N., whose purpose
is basically twofold:
i. Through its technical assistance program and educational
activities it seeks to improve the welfare of workers throughout
the world by providing, for example: vocational training, assist-
ance in the establishment of governmental institutions such as
labor departments, technical advice to assist in the development
of free collective bargaining and sound labor-management rela-
tions and various programs which help developing countries
make better use of their manpower resources.
z. The I.L.O. also sets international standards designed to
point the way for developing nations which seek to provide a bet-
ter way of life for their people. These standards cover a wide vari-
ety of subjects including social security, child labor, industrial
and mine safety, forced labor, slavery and various forms of dis-
crimination in employment.
The I.L.O. is unique among international agencies in that it
is tripartite; that is, its membership consists of worker, em-
ployer and government representatives from some 8o nations.
The annual International Labor Conference at Geneva often
provides the only occasion during the year when union leaders
-many of whom are among the most important political figures
of their country-travel out of their own country or encounter
Americans. The importance of this encounter and of this organi-
zation can hardly be overestimated.
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IZ FOREIGN AFFAIRS
It is certain that the Communists understand its importance.
For they use it to the utmost to shout their claims to "a worker's
paradise." Happily, it can truthfully be said that their shouts
have fallen largely on unbelieving ears. They have made little
headway in the I.L.O., and time and time. again their totalitarian
system has been shown up for what it is. This has been done
most effectively not by government spokesmen but by workers,
whose conviction and sincerity give their comments a persuasive-
ness which it is hard for a governmental representative to equal.
We have seen that the organizations of workers in the newer
nations are a crucial force in the struggle for economic improve-
ment and in many cases offer the only social and political leader-
ship extending beyond the educated elite. If the future is to bring
material improvement in a context of freedom and democracy,
this force and its underlying sources must be fully realized. The
United States must adjust to its significance and be prepared to
make the same effort in behalf of world-wide economic progress
as we have exercised in building military strength to deter ag-
gression. To accomplish this will require not only economic
assistance but a capacity to identify ourselves with the interests
of those who are struggling for political rights and a better life.
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