influences, in violation of the constitution of the AFL-CIO. The council, in accordance with the powers vested in it in such cases by article VIII, section 7, of the AFL-CIO constitution, directed the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to correct the abuses set forth in the report of the ethical practices committee, to eliminate corrupt influences from the union, and to remove and bar from any position or office, either appointive or elective in the international union, or any of its subordinate bodies, those who are responsible for these abuses** The International Brotherhood of Teamsters held a convention in the week of September 30, 1957, at Miami Beach *** no investigation and no proceedings were begun with respect to officials of the Teamsters Union, including President Dave Beck and Vice Presidents Sidney Brennan and Frank Brewster, who were found by the ethical practices committee to have engaged in corrupt practices. Other officials of the Teamsters Union who were involved In accordance with the power vested in it by article VIII, Since it became an orphan, the Teamsters, however, seems to have gained 200,000 members and is looking for more. An effort to organize the New York police was sharply rebuffed by the city administration. Hoffa's organizers have been reported as planning a campaign among white collar workers of Sears Roebuck and other unorganized chainstores and as eyeing possibilities for enveloping the Great Lakes waterfront where, on completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway, they would stand astride a huge shipping complex. Here is what the Communist Worker said last August about Hoffa's plans for the Great Lakes region: Reports have it that an organizing meeting of Canadian and American unionists will soon be held jointly, in Windsor, Canada, on the Detroit River, which separates the United States and Canada, to map the beginning of a huge union drive, set to go fall and winter, to prepare for the opening of the St. Lawrence seaway in 1959 * * * Thousands of new members that James Hoffa hopes to get into the Teamsters, including dockers, seamen, clerks ** will get jobs on the St. Lawrence seaway. * Heading the drive will be Hoffa, president of the Teamsters' Union, in conjunction with *** Joe Curran, NMU; William Bradley, of the Longshoremen's union *** Shippers in 16 States will get their freight through the port of Detroit, from which flow out 11 main railroad lines, 122 common motor carriers, and 61 local cartage companies. Currently 27 foreign steamship lines under 10 foreign flags service the port of Detroit (p. 17). The International Longshoremen's Association is reported to have made considerable headway in eliminating gangsterism since its ouster in 1953 and may be in line for an early return to the AFL-CIO ranks. DOCKWORKERS EXPLORE TACTICS However, there have been many contacts in recent years between ILA representatives and those of the Bridges union. Velson testified before this subcommittee that Bridges sent him to New York in 1954 and that he had met with Thomas (Teddy) Gleason, general organizer of ILA, and with Anthony Anastasia, head of ILA Local 1814, "many times." Gleason acknowledged that he had met Velson "maybe 30 or 40 times" (p. 5). Kibre testified that in 1953 and 1954 he was in contact with Bradley, Gleason, Anastasia, Patrick J. Connolly, executive vice president of ILA, and Fred Field, president of the New York Port Council of ILA with reference to obtaining financial aid from ILWU for the east coast union. A donation of $1,500 to ILA rank and file by one ILWU local was reported in 1954 by the ILWU Dispatcher. The paper also said that an ILA delegation visited many ILWU locals during that year (p. 6). Gleason testified that he and Bradley met with Bridges and Goldblatt in Washington in 1957 when all four testified on legislation before the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. He said Velson helped prepare a number of statements for the group that day (p. 5). In 1957 a delegation of the ILWU Clerks Negotiating Committee called on the ILA leaders in response to a cordial letter from Gleason. As the following story from the ILWU Dispatcher makes clear, the occasion was used to put pressure on east coast employers, with whom ILA was then negotiating, by suggesting the possibility of west coast cooperative union action. The very first day they were there Gleason took them to a session on a labor relations dispute that the ILA was trying to settle with the New York Shipping Association. When the head of the NYSA, Alexander Chopin, saw the ILWU representatives he said, "What's this? What's going on here?" * * *he "It was pretty clear to me, 'one of the delegates reported," that the employers were not very comfortable about seeing us back there*** Chopin was quite surprised seemed a little shocked to see us.' * ** Apparently ILA officials returned the call later that year. The Communist Daily Worker of November 21 had this note: The delegation of top-level leaders of the International (Teddy) Gleason, ILA organization director, indicated a Field, for one, indicated he was impressed. He was quoted on December 1, 1957, by the Worker as having told the New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Labor and Industry: I found that those guys, so hated by the GovernmentI don't hate 'em-have been able to get all those amazing safety codes even from the Federal Government. *** Why is it that we who have always been considered loyal Americans can't get codes like that here? They're tainted with the Red brush and get all those amazing benefits (pp. 11, 12). Gleason also apparently was impressed with the west coast operation. On his return he made a number of recommendations. Among them were that data be exchanged on safety matters, that hiring be regulated on the east coast by labor and management instead of by the Waterfront Commission, that technical assistance in the establishment of a research department be obtained from the west coast, that the two unions work together to eliminate use of civilians by the Army and Navy for longshore work, that a joint office be established in Washington to watch for antiunion bills and to seek beneficial legislation, that uniform wage rates and manning be sought on the east, gulf and Pacific coasts, and that a national bargaining policy be adopted (p. 15). NMU IN SENSITIVE SPOT The National Maritime Union, though listed by a congressional committee in 1944 as one of a group of labor organizations in which "Communist_leadership is strongly entrenched," is a member of AFL-CIO. In 1950 NMU delegates to the CIO convention voted to expel the ILWU, which also had been included in the group described by the committee as Communist infiltrated (p. 20). Last August, the executive council of AFL-CIO, which had ousted the Teamsters Union a year earlier because of corrupt practices, took note of the proposed alliance of transportation unions by adopting a resolution which read in part as follows: The question which now confronts this executive council is the fact that there are in existence alliances or agreements between AFL-CIO affiliates and the expelled and corruptly dominated International Brotherhood of Teamsters It is quite clear that the maintenance of an agreement between a corruptly dominated labor organization and an AFL-CIO affiliate which is of such a nature as to add to the prestige of the corrupt leadership, or would be of assistance to the leadership to retain control or lessen the desire of union members to rid themselves of such corrupt leadership is in direct contradiction to both the spirit and the letter of our constitution * * * Therefore, this executive council declares it to be the policy of the AFL-CIO that any alliance or agreement, formal or informal, between an affiliate of the AFL-CIO and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters be canceled. Curran cast the only vote against the resolution but assured his members later that he would, "of course, abide by the policy resolution adopted by the executive council" (p. 20). However, after a meeting on October 8, the NMU national council announced that it had decided to continue its efforts "to bring peace to the waterfront" through a closer liaison with the Teamsters and ILA in their plans to establish a "permanent Conference on Transportation Unity" (p. 21). TRANSPORT KEY COMMUNIST TARGET It may be recalled that Lenin once advised his followers to "find that particular link in the chain which one must grasp with all one's might in order to hold the whole chain" (p. 28). It would appear that the Communists presently regard the transport industry as that particular "link.' Addressing the 1950 plenary session of the National Committee of the Communist Party, U.S.A., John Williamson, head of its trade union department, adjured members to "keep before us as a central objective * our trade union resolution of last March," stating: Our party must at all times be guided in its trade-union work by the objective of maintaining contact with and influencing the main body of workers in the organized labor movement *** the main attention of the party must be concentrated on the main body of workers and trade unions * ** (p. 4). In a call to transport workers issued by the Communist International in 1935, this statement was included: Transport is called the vital artery of the bourgeoisie in peace and war. Standing as they do in this vitally strategic key position, none can do more in the struggle against fascism, in the struggle against imperialist war, than the international transport proletariat. The water-transport workers have a good tradition in the fight against war. These traditions must now be renewed (p. 27). An intensive campaign to infiltrate transportation unions in the New York area was set underway in 1945, immediately after reconstitution of the Communist Party U.S.A., John Lautner told the subcommittee in sworn testimony. Lautner, in 1945, was a high official in the New York State Communist organization. He said the objective of the drive was control of the waterfront, railway terminals, longshore activity. This was his description of the thoroughness with which the Communist campaign was prepared: We made a survey of all of the teamster sheds beginning from the Battery all the way up to the Fifties and on the East Side * * We made a survey of all the railway terminals, like the New York Central on the west side in the lower Bronx, and all of the ferrying that is being done by railways through the Erie Line and the Lackawanna Lines into Long Island and into Brooklyn. A complete survey was made in order to allocate party organizations, neighbor- * * BRIDGES WOULD DEAL WITH COMMIES In a statement published in the ILWU magazine, The Dispatcher, in 1950, Bridges made plain his own willingness to deal with Communists. As quoted in the publication, he said: The position of our union should be understood if it is a question of Communist or others, in Australia, There are at least two instances of record where this policy has paid off for Bridges. The first is related in a passage from the union's official history, "The ILWU Story," dealing with the Communistdominated World Federation of Trade Unions. It reads: *** it was not surprising that when the newly formed World Federation of Trade Unions met in San Francisco, at the time of the founding session of the United Nations, the ILWU was recognized as the host union for the affair-and deservedly so. In the first major postwar maritime struggle, that of the Committee for Maritime Unity in 1946, these international fraternal bonds paid off well. When President Truman threatened to smash the projected maritime strike with Navy-manned vessels and Army longshoremen, the call for help from the ILWU produced a worldwide wave of union support. Pledges that these scab cargoes and hot ships would rot overseas poured into the CMU. And the great gains of the successful negotiations, without a strike, followed soon after. The support from overseas was the turning point in convincing the employers that they'd lose a strike (p. 24). The second is a published account of a report by Sam Darcy, a Communist district organizer of the Communist Party in California at the time of the 81-day general strike in the San Francisco Bay area in 1934. As published in The Communist for October 1934, Darcy proclaimed to the Seventh Congress of the Communist International, meeting in Moscow: "Let me state here that there would have been no maritime or general strike except for the work of our party." The strike had begun in May with the longshoremen and spread the length of the Pacific coast. About 6 weeks later, Darcy related, “in anticipation of the possible need for a general strike, we" persuaded Painters Local 1158 to send a letter to all other AFL locals in the Bay |