Evening star., 1949-09-30
|AFL'5 Agent in Europe
Sees Chain Of Strikes
Inspired by Reds
By John P. Leoeoeos
North Amsriton kswspopsr Alliance

SY SOgu U GSoSoSSS
North Amsriton ksw.popsr Alliance
ROME, Sept. 30.-Self- -indul-
gent optimists who prophesy an
early end to the cold war are just
kidding themselves. according to
Irving ]. Brown. 38-year-old re-
preventative of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor in Europe.
Instead, Mr.. Brown predicted for
this fall a chain Of Communist
plotted labor activity that will
literally circle the globe.
And when Mr.. Brown talks, it's
good sense to listen respectfully,
for he's the man who almost
single-handed, in his four years
overseas, has won for the A. F. of
L. in Europe a reputation for inter-
Observation-Disclosures which some
say is singularly in contrast with
its reputed conservation back
home.
Sees Red Sleeping Dose"
Mr.. Brown termed indications of
Communist sweet talk these days
just a sleeping DOSE" He said
Americans are prone to forget
two important considerations, to
wit:
First. that the coming year will
be the critical one for the Marshall
Plan: second, that the strength
of the Communists is still decisive
IN labor matters even where they
are in an apparent minority.
Economically, Communist labor
agitation aims to waste Marshall
Plan dollars. In that way it will
soften up the problem of East
West trade for the benefit of the
Soviets at the diplomatic confer
ence tables, Mr.. Brown declared.
Militarily. the Red labor mis-
sion proposes to outflank the At
lantic pact by promoting Moslem
independence movements in Arab
North Africa and by holding the
upper hand in the ports of
Algiers, Oran. Tunis and Casa
blanca. the AFL expert asserted.
Maritime Tieups Planned.
The key instrument against
both Marshall Plan and military
aid shipments from the United
States will be a blockade system
imposed by the maritime and
longshoremen's unions under the
pretext of negotiating new wage
contracts, Mr.. Brown said.
In this connection. strikes led
by unions affiliated with the Rus
sian-dominated World Federation
of Trade Unions (WFTU) are ex-
pected to break out in France.
England, Canada. the United
States, Australia, India and Hong
Kong. The wave has already
started in Italy.
Portentous as all this sounds,
labor turmoil is nothing to get
hysterical about, Mr.. Brown
remarked. Labor is now in the
big time and is one of the most
important ways in which foreign
affairs are conducted in this era.
But the masses of labor are not
being left to the mercy Of Com
munist "wire-pullers," he added
emphatically.
To Form New World Group.
The non-Communist unions of
Europe, having at long last split
off from the WFTU-after long
exhortation from the AF'L to do
so-are forming a new world la
bor group In London this Noyem-
Der. The CIO is the AFL's fun
partner in this move. Mr.. Brown
said. Steps to block the Red
shipping maneuvers are also under
way.
Valuable in the long pull, though
perhaps not so obvious now, is
secret collaboration with anti
Communist labor forces in Soviet
controlled Eastern Europe. Mr..
Brown was naturally reluctant to
give details of what he called the
AFL's underground work in the
Red zones. Too many of his boys
have been Jailed or hung recently,
he said.
But for over year ''free trade
union center in exile" has been
operating in Paris, subsidized by
AFL funds. It is manned exclu-
sively by unionists escaped from
the satellite countries. All have
suffered persecution under both
Nazis and Communists.
Contacts are maintained with
Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia. Poland, Yugo-
slavia and with Lativa, Lithuania,