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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 18. Pre-War Labor Market Controls and Their Consequences for the Negro - 4. A Weak Movement Getting Strong Powers
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Chapter i8. Pre-War Labor Market 407
ualistic middle class ideology, and so on. We shall there also find that
important economic changes during the last generation have laid the basis
for a fundamental shift to greater participation and solidarity among the
masses of people in America. As the trade unions increasingly come to
serve workers of all kinds, including those in the mass production indus-
tries, the more necessary will it be for the labor movement to embrace a
common working class ideology rather than to remain the instrument for
job-grabbing and group competition.
But there are other and more specific reasons for our belief that the
Negroes will get more consideration from the unions in the future.
The labor union movement has recently been growing in strength
—due largely to government support. This is, of course, itself a sign
of weakness. A strong labor movement is usually just as much against state
interference on the labor market as the employers are, and it can afford
to take such an attitude because of Its Independent strength. The Ameri-
can labor movement could not afford to reject government support; It had
rather use its political influence to press for it. In the course of time it
will become evident that government su’p’port is followed by government
influence.
By its own policy the American labor movement is actually provoking
government control. Quite aside from all sorts of irregular practices
—
which, as long as they exist even as exceptions, are crying for public con-
trol over the unions—^the labor movement is forced to press for union
shops. It is likely that the war emergency will help It to get union shop
agreements in an increasing part of the labor market. But such power can
be tolerated In a democratic country only if the doors to the unions are
kept open and If democratic procedures within the unions are amply pro-
tected. As the labor unions are getting stronger, the demand will become
ever more vigorous for governmental control protecting democracy in the
unions. The important thing, from our point of view^ is that the only way
by which the unions in the long run would be likely to protect their present
independence would be to reform themselves quickly. Either government
control or independent democratic control would benefit the Negroes.
As the second alternative is less likely to become realized fast enough,
it seems probable that not only the enemies of the labor movement but
also its friends and, indeed, many of the organized workers themselves
will raise the demand for government control over the unions. It is inter-
esting in this context to refer to a recent article by Norman Thomas, who
cannot be accused of being anti-labor or anti-union.^^ Thomas exemplifies
the statement that ‘^there are grave evils in the organizational setup and
attitude of many American labor unions and their dominant bureaucracies”
and sees the fundamental cause in their lack of democracy. He comes out
with the following proposal:
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