Part 4 - Solidarity Asunder: Labor After the War.

The fourth episode of New Yorkers at Work focuses on the gradually diminishing influence of communism and the left-wing in the AFL-CIO during the beginnings of the cold war. Narrators Martha Greenhouse and Frederick O'Neal begin the episode with a lengthy disclaimer qualifying the discussion and clarifying the episode's political agnosticism.
The program features interviews with union members, party members, and men and women who had been subject to red-baiting or seen their union expelled from the AFL-CIO. Unions found themselves faced with the impossible task of balancing local needs and practices with national and international influences from their own parent unions and from new laws and government activities.
The program is interspersed with historical context from the narrators and with prerecorded performance of folk music from Paul Robeson and others, as well as a choir performing the union anthem "Solidarity Forever."

A man discusses the hopes felt for improved working conditions and more powerful unions after the war being squashed as the cold war set in.

The narrators discuss the expulsion of 9 unions from the CIO after the war due to suspicions of communism. Attitudes about the Soviet Union changed almost immediately after the war. They discuss the more unexpectedly moderate approach communists often took. They will look into what attraction communism had for New Yorkers, who comprised one third of the Communist Party of United States rolls after the war.

Izzy Alexrod, painter from Brooklyn, discusses his first encounter with the American Left. Bob Mackleroy discusses the appeal of Communism, he saw organizing the deprived people as being the most American thing one could do. Abe Flaxer of the United Public Workers Union, who were expelled from the CIO, recalls his experience in the 30s.
Loretta Zeliger talks about expecting a potential revolution and her youthful naivety. Harry Fleishman formerly of the Communist party, and now a fierce critic, talks about John Lewis and the use of communists in the CIO.

Frederick O'Neal brings up Turman's Loyalty order. Abe Flaxer discusses it. He talks about the House Unamerican Activities Committee.

Martha Greenhouse discusses two government policy decisions from 1947 - the Marshall Plan and the Taft-Hartley Act - and the unique spot they put labor leaders in. Leon Spurdlove of the jewelers union discusses the struggles they had working with the Marshall Plan and Taft-Hartley Act, between employers and hard-core unionists.

Abe Flaxer talks about the 1948 election and Truman's tricky reputation. He brings up Henry Wallace's lack of success. Saul Mills of the CIO council talks about the problems they faced in the elections and in between the international and national portions of the CIO.

Greenhouse tells us that Lewis's successor at the CIO, Philip Murray, presided over the dismantling of unions. Flaxer discusses the process. He feels the same thing is happening today. His organization sought to try to unite the labor movement "over [their] deadbodies."

Paul Robeson [?) performs "Scandalize My Name."

Zeliger and Spurdlove talk about being Red-Baited. Spurdlove talks about protesting in Union Square on May Day.

Greenhouse notes that the CPUSA's influence diminished because of their no-strike pledge during the second World War and their adherence to the Soviet Union. She talks about the 1956 revelation of Stalin's crimes. Saul Mills recalls the great strides that are now taken for granted by the less-politicized labor movement. Zeliger and Flaxer describe the communists and the left wing as the spirit and energy of the AFL-CIO. Harry Fleishman recalls a song 'Solidarity Forever' reaching Joe McCarthy and being supported by the unions when attacked. The episode closes with a performance of the song by a choir.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 92585