The Brothers Reuther and The Story of The UAW: A Memoir

by Victor G. Reuther

A story of the UAW, a memoir. Anyone interested in the history of the unions would enjoy reading this book.

523 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating life story of brother immigrants applying socialist ideals to the problems of labor relations in the USA and emerging with the UAW, AFL-CIO, and multiple employee benefits we now take for granted as well as doing this through monumental strike actions.

I made a list of books from 1930 Victor helped compile in Europe.

Early on, Victor developed an interest in the American Depression-Era underclass and documented some in a photography project.

Next to our pictures contrasting tin-and-tarpaper shacks with Grosse Pointe mansions, under a caption from Goldsmith "Where wealth accumulates and men decay" - we commented on the "homes that a dying social order is providing for its unemployed workers ..."

These unemployed workers had made dugouts along the railroad tracks in the Detroit city dump, using discarded dump truck bodies for shelter, lard cans for stoves, rags and newspapers for beds. We put pictures of these "houses" next to pictures of the Dodge estate...

Front matter of this exploration of Hoovervilles and prostitutes was satirical.

Our frontispiece included a small parody of the opening of the Gettysburg Address:

Fourscore and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new economic system, conceived of the policies of "laissez faire" and dedicated to the proposition that private profit is the sole incentive to progress. Now we are engaged in a great economic struggle, testing whether this nation or any nation so deceived and so dedicated to rugged individualism can long endure.

Later, as union organizers, the brothers confronted the insidious schemes of Republican, owner-class manipulators.

The other, less rosy side of the international labor story reflects a sad image of some of our countrymen during the decades between World War II and the seventies. The revelations of the Nixon scandal even now continue to cast light on some of the more melodramatic domestic and foreign adventures. Among these are the extended CIA operations, some of which, under the guise of international trade union work, brought corruption and shame, weakness and betrayal to the cause of international labor solidarity.

Soon after I accepted the European directorship in behalf of National CIO (before the merger with AFL) I became aware of a suspicion, pervading European labor and political circles, that some of those acting in the name of U.S. labor were spending money far beyond what normal trade unions would have had available at that time. The activities of the AFL's Irving Brown were especially mis-trusted; it was thought that he was receiving incredibly large funds from some U.S. Government source in an effort to get European trade unions in his pocket and to dictate the foreign policy of both European and African countries. In plainer words, the hysterical fear of Communism that produced McCarthyism in America was being spread, by means of CIA money, first by the AFL and later by the AFL-CIO under Meany's autocratic rule.

This is one of the memoirs of this era that points out there was a Communist and non-Communist Left, generally at war with each other. Back then we had red-baiting, now we have woke- or antifa-baiting, I suppose?

"Exposure, not repression, must be our goal. We must get the Communists out of the political back alleys and walk them up Main Street in the full light of informed opinion." It took five years to break their power in the Ford Local 600, mainly because Walter would not use the autocratic methods John L. Lewis had used in dealing with Communist infiltration of his mine workers. The democratic process required time-consuming efforts to educate the rank and file, but that is what Walter preferred.

Emerging successfully from fighting the Communist far left and the bootheels of the far right:

John F. Kennedy's election increased the growth of hate crusades and he became the object of systematic vilification, reminiscent of the attacks on Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the world of the right wing, Kennedy had against him his youthful charisma, his wealth, intelligence, New England and Harvard background, his religion, his wife, brothers, advisers, his support of the blacks, his refusal to drop the bomb. He sounded a rational note on the subject of hate-mongers in a speech in the fall of 1961:

In critical periods there have always been those on the fringes of our society who have sought to escape their own responsibility by finding a simple solution, an appealing slogan or a convenient scapegoat They look suspiciously at their neighbors and their leader. They call for a "man on horseback" because they do not trust the people. They find treason in our churches, in our highest court. .. They equate the Democratic Party with the welfare state, the welfare state with Socialism, Socialism with Communism Let our patriotism be reflected in the creation of confidence in one another, rather than in crusades of suspicion - above all, let us remember, however serious the outlook, how-ever harsh the task, the one great irreversible trend in the history of the world is on the side of liberty.

(Look into the mysterious Kaplan Foundation, a sponsor of immigration pamphlets allegedly authored by John Kennedy, etc.)

As international figures, the brothers and their organization was involved in Castro's blackmail trying for heavy equipment in exchange for Bay of Pigs POWs. This is covered in "Experts' Mission Specified" By Damon Stetson Special To the New York Times (June 10, 1961).

"...fund-raising activities are continuing under the direction of Mrs. Roosevelt, Walter P. Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers (A. F. L.-C. I. O.)..."

Memo from the concluding appendices reads like a warning from today's political landscape.

D. Memo to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy: Prepared by Victor G. Reuther, Walter P. Reuther, and Joseph L. Rauh, Jr.

THE RADICAL RIGHT IN AMERICA TODAY

President Kennedy's addresses in Seattle and Los Angeles on November 16 and 18 evidenced both a deep concern with, and a profound understanding of, the serious problems injected into American life by the growing strength of the radical right. A spate of articles in responsible newspapers and periodicals reflect this same concern and understanding. Perhaps therefore this memorandum will prove but a repetition and restatement of suggestions al-ready under consideration by the Administration. Since, however, the public discussion to date concerning the radical right has produced little in the line of suggested policies and programs for dealing with the serious problems raised, this memorandum may have some value in focusing attention upon possible Administration policies and programs to combat the radical right.

Initially, it needs to be said that far more is required in the struggle against the radical right than simply calling attention to present and potential dangers. If the Administration truly recognizes this as a serious problem, as it certainly appears to do, it is most important that President Kennedy's addresses in Seattle and Los Angeles be implemented. Speeches without action may well only mobilize the radical right instead of mobilizing the democratic forces within our nation. It is with this consideration in view that there is set forth below an estimate of the extent of the problem and suggested Ad-ministration policies and programs for dealing with the problem.

EXTENT OF PROBLEM

The radical right or extreme right-wing, or however it may be designated, includes an unknown number of millions of Americans of viewpoints bounded on the left by Senator Goldwater and on the right by Robert Welch. The active component of these radical right millions would, of course, be only a small fraction of the total.

...stronger and are almost certainly better organized than at any time in recent history. ...

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great biography of Walter and Victor Reuther, two brothers who essentially built up the United Auto Workers, and fought to protect themselves (in their case, from assassins, likely hired by the auto companies) and their union until it became one of the strongest in America. Victor is straightforward throughout the book (Walter died in a plane crash in the 1960s), and is a really nice guy; I'm biased though, because I met Victor a few years before his death and got to interview him about his experiences, especially when he and Walter went to Soviet Russia to work in the giant Gorky Automobile Works in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia ... a place I also visited!

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's face it, many labor leaders were unscrupulous gangsters. Many others were communists. The Reuthers, on the other hand (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), were honest and uncorrupted. Yes, they had their fling with communism as young men and even went to the the U.S.S.R. in an idealistic attempt to volunteer their services as skilled machine workers, but they later wised up and resisted communists in the UAW, which they ran to the benefit of the members. Of particular interest, at least to me, were the Mafia's attempts to harm the Reuthers.