REPORT of the CIO DELEGATION to the SOVIET UNION Submitted by JAMES B. CAREY Secretary-Treasurer, CIO Chairman of the Delegation Other Members of the Delegation: JOSEPH CURRAN REID ROBINSON rice-President, CIO Fice-P resident , CIO President, N at ional M arit ime Union President , Lnt crnational Union of .lIint', J / ill and Smelt er Il'orkers ALBERTJ . FITZGERALD r ice-Pre siden t, CIO LEE PRESSMAN President , Un ited E lect rical, R adio and General Couusrl, c/o JIacliine W orkers 0/ .Inisr ica JOHN GREEN JOHN ABT rice-President, CIO General Cou nsel, Amalgamat ed Clot hing President, Indust rial Union 0/ M an ne and W orku 5 0/ .lmeri ca Sh ipb uilding W orlecrs LEN DE CAUX ALLAN S. HAYWOOD Pu blicit y D irect or, CIO, and E dit or, Tilt' Fice -President, CIO C/O N m 's D irector 0/ Organization, CIO EMIL RIEVE VINCENT SWEENEY r ia-President, CIO Pu blicit y D irect or, United St rrlzcorlerrs President, T ext ile W orkers Union oi A merica 0/ A merica; Editor, St eel Labor Publication No. 128 Price 15c per copy; 100 for $10.00; 500 for $40.00 D epartment of International Affairs Order Literature from Publicity Department CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 718 JACKSON PLACE, N. W. WASHINGTON 6, D. C. \ -- . ~ 2 rr To Promote Friendship And Understanding... " H E victo ry of the United Nations over the military power of fascism T opened up prospects of a new era of int ern ational understanding, democratic progress, world peace and prosperity. T he Cong ress of Indus­ trial Organizations, the vanguard of American labor, ra llied behind the plans of Presid ent R oosevelt and other leaders of the U nited Nations to con­ tinue th is wartime unity into the post­ war pe riod . Because we believe that unity be­ tween governments must be based on un ity among peoples, we set about forg ing .unbreakable un ity among the working people of all countries and played a leading part in the formation of the Wo rld Fede ration ·of Trade Unions. I n pursuit of th is general purpose th e CIO has also been developi ng the excha nge of frat ernal labor delega tions an d encouraging all other steps that will promote a closer understanding PHILIP MURRAY between the workers of the United Sta tes and ot he r countries. The following report of Secretary-Treasurer J ames B. Carey, who was chairman of the CIO delegation to the Soviet U nion, embodies the obser­ vations of a representative group of outs ta nding CIO leader s who visited that country as gues ts of the All-U nion Cent ral Council of T rade Unions, 3 in return for a visrt pa id to the United States by a Sov iet trade -u rnon delegation, in vited by the C IO . I consider this a docu men t of first-ra te import an ce, not on ly for American labor but for all wh o are in ter ested in knowing the truth ab out the Sov iet trade union move me nt and in p romoting fri endshi p and unde r­ standing between the peoples of our two countries. U nfortunately, the re are those who p refe r to sow seeds of distrust and suspicion, wh o ma gni fy the soc ial and cultural differen ces into un b ridgeable gulfs, and wh o seek to divide ra the r th an to unite th e world. It is my hop e that thi s rep ort will help to prevent the division of th e wo rld into hostil e blocs an d to elimina te host ility against the great people whose coopera tion wa s so essentia l to U nited );ation s victory and wh ose cont inued fri endshi p and coo peration is equally esse ntial for lastin g peace and worl d prosperity. ~/f7 P resident, CIO 4 Report of the CIO Delegation to the Soviet Union R ECOG0:IZING th e a ll-impo rta nt fun cti on of th e world labor move- ment in th e war agains t fasc ism and for eseein g th e imper at iven ess of living togethe r, wor kin g toget he r a nd meeting together socially to achieve a lasting pe ace. throu gh act ion of the commo n peo ples, t he Con­ gress of Indu st rial Organiza tion s at its 1944 Con vention in Chicago, ado pted the following resolution: " RESOL VE D : (1 ) T he CIO endo rses and ap proves Pr esident M'urra v's action in accept ing an invitation of the British T rad es Union Congress to attend both a preliminary conference in L ondon on D ecem ber 4 of representativ es of the British Trades Union Congress, the Soviet Union and of the Unite d States, and th e full conference in th e same city early in January of next ye ar. "(2) The CIO supports the project of a new sin gle powerful int ernational lab or body that shall include all th e un ions of free countries on a basis of equalit v . excluding none and relegating none to a secondary place, and be capable of defending th e interests of the com-mo n ma n." Su bseq uent developm ents resu lted in the esta blishrn ent of th e World Federation of T rade Unio ns with th e CIO playin g a principal part. I n im plementing furthe r th e work of th e \VFTU, Presid ent Philip Murra y in the summer of 1945 exte nded invitation s to th e British Trades Union Congress, th e French Confed eration of Labor and th e All-Union Central Council of Trade U nion"s of th e Union of Soviet Socialist R epublics to send delegat ions to visit th e U nited States as -guests of th e CIO. The first .to resp ond was th e Sov iet trade uni on mov em ent, wh ich Il1 ] uly 1945 sent a de1ega tion to th e Unite d States, including represen ta­ tives of its ma jo r unions a nd headed by Vas ili Kuznet sov, Chairman of the ACC CT l i. This delegation made a tour of American industrial cit ies, visited many plants in its st ud y of American labor condit ions, a nd had ma ny opport unities to meet with C IO unioni sts and to establish close r ties of fr ien dship and understanding between our tw o movements. At th e sa me time, Mr. Kuznetsov on behalf of the AUCCTU extended an inv itation to the CIO to send a return del egation to the Sovi et Union for simila r purpos es. It wa s decided by President :~d u rr a y 'and th e CIO Executive Officers that thi s de legation sh ou ld be made up of CIO repre­ sentatives attending th e convention of the World Federation of Trad e 5 Unions in Paris, and that it should proceed to the Soviet Union imme­ diately up on th e conclusion of thi s convention. It had been expected that President Murray would head the delega­ tion to both the WFTU and the Soviet Union, but the many domestic questions raised by the end of military opera tions made his continued presence in the U nited States indispensable. In M r. Murray's absen ce, Secretary-Treasurer James B. Carey headed th e de lega tion that left Paris for M oscow on October 10. Other members of the delegation were CIa Vice-Pres. Allan S. Haywood, Director of Or gani zati on; Vice-Pres. Albert Fitzgerald, President of U nited Electrical, R adi o and M achine 'Workers; Vice-Pres. J ohn Green, President of Indus­ trial Union of Marine and Shi pbuilding Worker s; Vice-Pres. Emil Rie\"e, Presid ent of Textile Workers Union ; Vice-Pres. J oseph Curran , President of N ational Maritime Union ; Vice-Pres. Reid R obinson, President of th e Internati onal U nion of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers: Lee Pressman, CIa Ge neral Counsel; J ohn Abt, General Counsel of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers; Len De Caux, CIa Publicity Director and Editor of T he CIa N ews ; and Vincent Sweeney, P ubli city Director and Editor of t he Unite d Steelworkers. Sid ney Hillman, President of th e Amalga ma ted Clothing Workers of America, and Delegate Thomas- Burns of the U nited Rubber Worker s, were unable to make t he t rip because t hey had to ret urn to the U nited States immed iately after t he WFTU mee ting. Simila rly, Di rector of Councils J ohn Broph y and D irector of Int ern ational Affairs M ichael Ross were required to remain in P aris to pa rtic ipate in Internati onal Labor Or ganization confe rences. 6 A FTER a brief stopove r in Berlin, th e CIO del egation a rrived in Mos- cow on Octob er 11 an d rem ained in the Soviet U nion un til Octob er 19, whe n it left for London en route to the United States. The sho rt dura­ tion of thi s eight-day visit was deeply regretted by th e delegati on, but it was necessitated by th e fact that the delegati on had to be ba ck in th e U nited States by November 1 for th e CIO E xecutive Board' meeting prelimina ry to Pres­ id ent T ruman's Lab or-Man- o age ment Confer ence on No ­ vembe r 5, a nd by th e difficul­ ties a nd delays incid ental to return travel a rr ange me nts un­ der exist ing cond itions .