'PASSING THE WORD' -- WHOSE WORD?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300390001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 5, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 31, 1967
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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CPYRGHT
BY GUS ILI.LL
taten:ents are made by public figures, then it
s necessary to speak up. The column by Jos'ph
'L,rran, president of the National Maritine
Jr-cm, in the December issue of "The .Pilot"
: for an answer.
he only truthful word in the whole piece
the title "Passing the Word." The CIA's pro-
aganda department has a large stable of pro-
essioral f:nl ifiers who, for cngh, grind n4it filthy
edbaltin; fiction by the ton. In the trade union
novement this odious bilge is pumped for pub-
ication by a Jay Lovestone who holds down a
IA desk in the front office of the AFL-CIO. This
rivel is published in the trade union press under
he name of any official who can be convinced
id off or forced into the use of his name.
Red-baiting has always been a camouflage for
he crimes anti `misdeeds of demagogues an
coundrels of all types. It took a lot of redbaitin
o cover for the crimes of Hitler and Mussolini
I h
enator McCarthy's redbaiting (not.Eugene, but
'oe) was the covet for the crimes of the Korea
ar and an attempt to discredit our democrats
restitutions, including our trade union move
eat. And in retrospect one must say that the
amage to the trade union movement was in
stimable.
It takes a lot of redbaiting to cover for the
rimes of the U.S. aggression against Vietnam
And it took a wave of fanatical redbaiting fo
he Meany-Lovestone-Dubinsky clique to pu
ver an endorsement of these crimes of the John
on 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 conventio
are also a part of this camouflage.
The column by Curran is a rehashing of al
the fraudulent filth that was ever peddled b
any anti-labor, anti-democratic demagogue fro
Hitler to Hoover, from Eastland to Welch. I
must have been the sainq stable that shovele
out the swill for the Adrdinistration spokesme
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 b
the world than any in history, is defended b
Curran. The demagogy he uses is that this is
This will fool no one. U.S. imperialism is doin
today what Gorman imperialism did under Hit
ler. The forces who fought fascism are toda
fighting against U.S. imperialism. The force
who defended fascism are today defending U.
imperialism. Curran tries to cover up for th'
brutal imperialist aggression by saying, "Al
Communist countries act as if there were n
such things as national boundaries." Such idioc
cannot cover up the undeniable facts that it i
U.S. imperialism that has crossed the boundarie
in Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Taiwat
and was instrumental in the crossing of the boun
darics of Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
Curran's column talks about the danger o
"Communist global. take-over." This is a thread
bare defense of the greatest "take-over" th
world has ever known. U.S. imperialism is nog
.more human beings than any power in history,
it has more war bases around the world than any
government in history. U.S. capitalism controls,
more industries, banks and utilities overseas
than any class in history. All the rebaitino in
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. bid busine 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 officials around the
world to split the trade unions. The very latest
of these exposes and confessions by labor leaders
comes from Finland where trade ur?' : leaders
admitted being on the CIA payroll far u,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 ?-)ions of the world-than at any
time in histc: trade union movement of
the world has reiccted 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 eover 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
McCarthyism of the fifties. They knuw that red-
baiting is an instrument of splitting and weak-
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 government.
Why 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.