The CIO news., 1943-05-10
LOOKING AHEAD
By Len De Caux

By Len De Caux
THERE are so many self-proclaimed spokesmen
l. these days for the boys in the foxhoes of North
Africa and the Southwest Pacific!
And Rickenbacker isn't the only one.
There are pot-bellied poll-taxers in Congress,
who don't even speak for their largely voteless
constituencies. But they're quite willing to mis-
represent the boys in the foxhoes as well, in their
fight against labor and social reform"
Then there are big-business publishers who daily
promote selfish profit interests "for the sake OF the
boys in the foxholes"
And every so often some stufed-shirt returns
from a flying trip to the back of the front, to tell
the papers what's our soldiers minds.
BY the strangest coincidence such reports always
fit in most neatly with the stufed-shirts ideas
and with the propaganda of the paper to which
he speaks
Unfortunately our fighting men can't elect their
own spokesman They get little news from home,
and have no means of speaking directly to the
general public.
So tory papers and politicians feel safe-without
fear of successful contradiction, the saying
goes-in proclaimng that soldiers are always
gripping against American labor and demanding that
it be sweated and shackled.
We have yet to read report, from such sources,
that the boys have any complaint against war
profiteers; against concerns that endanger their
lives with faulty STEEL against expoiters OF their
fathers wives and sweethearts; or against the
near-fascist crowd who want open-Shop slavery
and apple-selling rugged individualism to be the
soldiers lot on their return.
Such political exploitation and Misrepresentation
of men who are too busy fighting and dying for
their country to be able to speak for themselves,
is of the most ghoulish indecencies Of this war;
The CIO has million more of its members
in the armed forces-many of them in the foxholes
right
No one can express views of all these men and
their buddies. But we do know what many Of
them are saying in letters from the front, or from
the camps to their families and friends, to their
unions and to the CIO.
And there is now a szeabe body of evidence of
this kind.
Naturally the personal note predominates in such
correspondence. Hardships and dangers usually
treated with courage and humor, though censor
ship forbids much detail. And there is an insati-
able longing for news from home
But there is also pronounced social note that
recurs again and again. Many letters, for instance,
express deep resentment at reports on Ricken-
hackers speeches.
MANY of us here in the Southwest Pacific were
appalled, to learn that Rickenbacker has taken up
the cudges against families and friends back
home, who have given us the best weapons in the
world" says one letter.
"Mr. Rickenbacker doesn't like labor unions, or
apparently the people who belong to Them That
is his privilege But 1t is not quite his privilege
to denounce labor unions in our behalf or sup
posedly in our name"
Two other notes stand out in countless letters
received in CIO quarters from fighting men.
~ An appreciation of what this peoples war
is all about. Hatred of fascsm and all it stands
for. A grim determination to fight for freedom
and democracy and for a world safe for peace
and social progress.
(2) Eagerness to get the war over as soon as
,ur;tarc rot,,rx 70 tLo;r