Marxists’ Internet Archive: ETOL Home Page: Trotskyist Writers Section: Farrel Dobbs
Source: Socialist Appeal, Vol. 4 No. 52, 28 December 1940, p. 2..
Transcription & Mark-up: Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold, who has been prosecuting the so-called “anti-trust” cases against the trade unions, arguing before the United States Supreme Court, stated that, “labor ... should not be permitted to destroy itself by factional war.” This statement was made in connection with Arnold’s attempt to prosecute the officials of the AFL-Carpenters Union as the result of a jurisdictional strike against the AFL-Machinists in the Anheuser-Busch brewery at St. Louis.
When asked by Justice Frankfurter whether his argument would apply to a similar dispute between the AFL and the CIO. Arnold replied that it would. If the UAW-CIO were to strike Ford and the Ford company-union claimed that the CIO was striking against its “jurisdiction,” which it probably would, then, according to Arnold’s “logic,” this too would be a jurisdictional strike in which he, the great crusader, would step in to save labor from “destroying itself by factional war.”
“The power to suppress competition,” says Arnold, “is far more dangerous than the power to fix prices.” Arnold refers here not to the competition between business establishments, but to the competition among the workers for jobs. When he attacks the “power to suppress competition” in this case, what lie is referring to is the right of the legitimate trade unions to act as the exclusive bargaining agency for the workers.
Having camouflaged his real aim during the early stages of his anti-labor campaign by confining himself mainly to the jurisdictional disputes in the AFL, Arnold is now preparing his second and more brazen line of attack – “anti-trust” prosecution in disputes between the AFL and CIO. The final stage will be a direct assault upon the established principles of union recognition.
Arnold is fighting to maintain the anti-union “open shop” in industry. It is well to remind the workers and the “labor statesmen” that he is a subordinate of a member of Roosevelt’s cabinet.
A Washington correspondent of the New York Post reports that bills giving state and local authorities unprecedented powers in anti-labor activity have been secretly prepared in Washington. They are designed for submission next month to nearly all state legislatures.
One bill provides a ten-year jail sentence and $10,000 fine for anyone who “intentionally ... interferes” with property to “hinder, delay or interfere with national defense.” Another section provides a similar punishment for anyone who “intentionally’’ is responsible for any defect in an article which is “intended to be used in connection with national defense.”
Virtually everything from common pins to cannon can be construed as “used in national defense.” Therefore, this bill could and would in almost every instance be applied against the trade Unions. The word “intentionally” would be used as a convenient pretext in preparing frame-ups against the workers.
A second bill would provide each state with what amounts to an official vigilante organization, the members of which would be free from arrest for almost anything except “treason or felony.” In the business of strike-breaking it is considered neither treason nor a felony to club down the striking workers on a picket line. This becomes a matter of “civic duty.”
These bills will be introduced in the state legislatures behind a smoke-screen of hysterical agitation against “subversive activities,” “sabotage,” and “espionage.”
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Last updated: 15 November 2020