Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1951-04-06
Opening Address Of Walter P. Reuther


1t has been said many times in many places that
the UAW-CIO is different kind of trade union, that
different in many respects from the old-line
trade unions think the fact meeting here
today proves conclusively the UAW is certainly
different kind of union because what union in
America other than the UAW-CIO would convene its
Thirteenth Convention on April FOOLS Day?
The Convention is convenng at perhaps the most
crucial period in world history There is great fear
and uncertainty in the world Hundreds of millions
of people wondering what the next twelve years
going to bring whether the world will have war
peace We in America and in Canada, because we
live in the strongest of free nations of the world,
have double responsibility in this period when free
and free institutions being challenged by the
forces of aggression throughout the world.
And we in the organized labor movement have
been saying for a long time that the struggle be-
tween tyranny and freedom, the struggle between
Communism and Democracy, is struggle for mems
minds, their hearts and their lOyalties, and you
cannot win that struggle if you fight only on the
battlefields.
If we going to make freedom secure and really
stop the forces of Communist tyranny, then have
to fight against poverty and hunger and insecurity
with the devotion with which fight against
Communist aggression the battle fronts. Commun-
ism has perfected the technques of exploiting poverty
and hunger, and when people are hungry and when
they destitute you cannot fill their empty bellies
and their empty hearts with pious slogans We have
to meet the PRACTICAL challenge of the world where
mankind for the first time has got the tools of
duction to conquer, poverty and hunger and inse-
curity. We have to demonstrate that going to
fight to those tools to abolish poverty and hunger
You hear lot of talk these days. and the editorial
writer's waste lot of newsprint talking about the
fact labor has walked out of the defense agencies and
the boys in Wall Street beating their chests and
saying they prepared to bleed and die in the fight
against world Communism.
say anyone who know anything about Commun-
ism and the problem of fighting Communism will
have to arrive at the conclusion that have arrived
at-that the free labor movement of today is Democ-
racy's strongest bulwark against Communism In
every nation in the world where there is strong,
powerful trade union movement with the will and
the courage to fight to win full measure of economic
security and social justice for the workers. Com
munism is weak. la
But in other countries where there are not free
labor movements, where the great mass of people
denied economic and social justice-in those
countries Communism is strong. And say to the
boys in Wall Street the free labor movement has
forgotten about the practical fight against
Communism than the Wall Street boys will
know, because fighting it where it counts
We know that Communism attempts to exploit
human desperation and that it offers promise to the
hungry and dispossessed peoples of the world-a
promise of economic security with price tag. They
promise economic security at the price of political and
spiritual enslavement The fight have is to prove
to other people in ASIA in Europe in South America
In Africa, and all the world-where people are
struggling for freedom and for social justice that in
the kind of world fighting to build it is pos
sible to have both bread and freedom.
Freedom without bread is slavery, mockery, and
bread without freedom is slavery and mockery You
have to have both bread and freedom and must
sell that idea to the world not with piOus slogans
but by tangible and practical achievements.
IhatS What the UAW-CIO is all apOut-Securlty
and dignity and happiness for people, for you and
and children they, in their day, will struggle
to the ball ahead in the eternal struggle to make
for people To the extent that that struggle
bears the fruits of practical achievement-to that
extent we shall strengthen the forces of freedom
in the struggle against Communist tyranny in the
world.
We have made great progress since the last Con-
vention and want to thank the other officers and
the Executive Board members for their cooperation
and teamwork We said in Atlantic City GO
teamwork leadership
in the ranks That the combination that could
give us the power to move forward. say have
done that
On this platform the backdrop there is the