The truth about the Commies –
PAC was invented by Communists and first outlined in Red paper
Daily Worker told of plan as ‘new departure in trade union life’
By Frederick Woltman, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
It was the American Communists who set the pattern of Sidney Hillman’s CIO Political Action Committee, President Roosevelt’s loudest backer in the fourth-term campaign.
Just two months before Mr. Hillman established his veto power at the Democratic National Convention and “Clear it with Sidney” became a national expression, Earl Browder, Communist leader, laid down the dictum that the old-line Democratic and Republican Party leaderships could no longer be trusted.
Browder thundered last May 20:
This election must not be left in the hands of the old party machines of professional politicians, The extraordinary emergency in which our country finds itself calls for an extraordinary manner of handling the election, that it may be transformed from a threat against national unity into a means of uniting the nation on a higher level.
We must slap down the loud-mouthed demagogue, expose the wily maneuver, retire the old machine politicians to the background, and begin to bring forward a new type of people’s leadership.
The Political Action Committee filled the bill.
Today the Political Action Committee’s busiest and noisiest segment of mass support comes from the Communist Party which, despite its nominal demise, has now reached the high point of 25 years of Communist political activity.
The Communists’ pattern for the Political Action Committee was invented more than a year before the Browder speech. The first announcement appeared in The Daily Worker (Earl Browder, editor) of March 13, 1943, which described it as “a new departure in trade union life that has historic potentialities.”
It was the creation of community political action councils by the Communist-controlled Greater New York Industrial Union Council – now PAC’s official New York branch.
“National CIO leaders are watching closely…” said the Worker.
Reds going into action
These community councils became the election district vote-corralling machine of the New York CIO, for years the political sounding board of the Communists. Now it knew how to translate into vote-getting political action its earlier resolutions demanding the release of Browder from federal prison, the premature opening of a second front, the election of local Communist candidates and the support of other Red-inspired programs.
“CITY CIO ROLLS UP BIG GUNS FOR COUNTERATTACK IN POLITICAL ARENA,” said the Communist Worker, adding this “marked labor’s emergence for the first time here as an organized group in politics.”
Five months afterwards, July 7, 1943, the national CIO Executive Board created a national “Political Action Committee” which proceeded to extend the New York idea throughout the nation.
Communists on board
Ten of the board members were New York Communist union leaders represented in the New York Council; at least eight others were Communists from elsewhere, according to a Congressional report.
In appointing the eight-member Political Action Committee board, CIO President Philip Murray was careful to avoid Communist names. Only one of them was president of a Communist-led union, the United Electrical and Radio Workers, CIO. Fifteen ex-New Deal officials were put in charge of operations.
As the Political Action Committee’s general counsel and his own right bower, Mr. Hillman selected John Abt whose wife, Jessica Smith, has for years been a leading Communist apologist as editor of Soviet Russia Today. Mr. Abt’s sister is Marion Bachrach, executive secretary of the Council for Pan-American Democracy. This is a Communist Front organization headed by Frederick V. Field who, as executive secretary of the notorious American Peace Mobilization, led the anti-national defense picket line around the White House until the day Russia was invaded.
Browderites sparking campaign
Not content with paving the way for “political action,” the Communist Political Association, Browder’s new name for his party, is throwing all its resources and propaganda skill into the Political Action Committee’s fourth-term campaign.
In New York City, the Browderites teamed up with the Political Action Committee to capture the Republican as well as the Democratic and American Labor Party nominations for their sole spokesman in Congress, Rep. Vito Marcantonio. By marshalling thousands of doorbell ringers, they furnished the manual labor; the Political Action Committee gave $5,000.
In the Political Action Committee’s national campaign, Mr. Hillman has continued to accept the vigorous and effective cooperation of the official Communists, as well as their union followers. In industrial centers throughout the country, they furnish a large share of the drive behind the Political Action Committee’s presidential campaign.
While denying any Communist control of the Political Action Committee, Mr. Hillman has not repudiated their assistance.
Disregards own warning
Nor has Mr. Hillman followed his own tearful warning against collaboration with the Communists made at the CIO National Convention in Atlantic City, Nov. 20, 1940. Then he said:
Now I would not be doing the right thing if I would not tell you that from our experience in 30 years, I know that there are elements who cannot participate in the democratic processes… Their loyalty is to an organization outside of this organization. I don’t have to call them by name; whether their orders come from Rome, Berlin or Moscow, it is the same.
I say to you that we must warn our young membership not to be misled by the fine speeches they will make, by the confessions of loyalty… these people are a menace to the labor movement…