Maurice F. Neufeld

The Historical Relationship of Liberals and Intellectuals to Organized Labor in the United States

During the 1950s, liberals and intellectuals, once keenly partisan to organized labor, began to voice acute criti cism of American unions. This change, superficially consid ered, seemed to savor of tergiversation. However, a review of the historical relationship of liberals and intellectuals to union ism revealed that the close and relatively long alliance of the 1930s and 1940s itself constituted a distinctive departure from prior American experience. Moreover, the historical approach indicated that the alliance limited itself almost entirely to CIO unions as agencies of reform and excluded nearly all unions of the AFL. As the two organizations came, in time, to resemble each other in their institutional lives, disenchantment set in. This development was inevitable since liberals and intellectuals have traditionally tended to view the functions of unions as more extensive and exalted than the destiny envisaged by unions for themselves. Today, then, liberals and intellectuals have resumed their historical relationship to American union ism by becoming once again the independent guardians of the public good for the community at large.

The Persistence of Ideas in the American Labor Movement: The Heritage of the 1830s

In creating the first American labor movement, the craftsmen of Andrew Jacksons time advanced several ideas that challenged the doctrine of extreme laissez-faire which was then emerging. This essay examines six of those ideas—such as the beliefs that there were an excessive inequality of wealth and widespread monopoly—which provided support for the idea and practice of trade unionism. The author shows that these ideas have continued to be espoused by leaders and members of successive labor federations, including those of the AFL-CIO. He suggests that the persistence of these ideas reflects the persistence in some form of the political, social, and economic inequities that first evoked the ideas.

The Failure of AMG in Italy

HE fall of the Parri government in Rome in the autumn of 1945 and the spectacular rise of Gianninis Common Man Party were the culmination of a pattern of administrative errors which began with the Allied Military Government in Sicily and continued through the occupation of North Italy. The resignation of a democratic and representative government and the resurgence of fascism, under a new name, were as much due to Allied administrative chaos and confusion as to Italian political inexperience, governmental ineptitude, and economic ruin. The Allies, with the United States as senior partner in popular esteem, have chosen to enter occupied areas with a philosophy of lofty intentions couched in benign and democratic phraseology. They have had, however, no clear-cut program or administrative techniques designed to fulfill these ends. They have governed, even at the highest levels, with inexperienced men of limited political and administrative vision. By continuing, on the world scene, to act upon the American fiction that industrious individuals with good intentions, regardless of circumscribed professional training, education, or point of view, can be competent at high levels of governmental policy-making or in specialized and difficult fields of operation, we have created confusion and uncertainty. American prestige, once a symbol of hope, has dwindled, although the peoples of Europe and Asia still cling to the dream of disinterested good which our power evokes. AMG has failed in Italy because it has proved impossible, with the governing

Book Review: Labor Organizations: Workers' Councils: The Yugoslav ExperienceWorkers' Councils: The Yugoslav Experience. By KolajaJiri. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1965. xii, 84 pp.

bargaining was in a state of suspended animation. Despite these shortcomings, which indicate the need for further esearch, the study is informative and a positive contribution to our knowledge of comparative labor relations, a field that has attracted increasing attention in recent years. J. Oscar Alers Visiting Assistant Professor New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations Cornell University

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deeper into the value problem than other economists,&dquo; observes the author (p. xvii). The author was able to study the voluminous notes made by Carl Menger kept and preserved at the Menger Library at the Hototsubashi University, Tokyo. He is, therefore, concerned with discussing such problems an Menger’s so called plagiarism, the differences in the philosophy and method of Menger on the one hand, and Walras and Jevous on the other (chapter viii). Some new light on Carl Menger’s thought is the real highlight of the book, and the author deserves our congratulations for doing this well. N. V. SOVANI United Nations Research Institute for Social Development Geneva

George H. Hildebrand. Growth and Structure in the Economy of Modern Italy. Pp. xx, 475. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965.

Explores the evolution of trade unions in Italy. Industrialization of the country; Role of workers in political unionism; Barriers to labor unity and growth; Economic changes in the country. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)

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The development of a democratic, anti-Communist, and effective labor movement in Italy is rendered difficult by several things: the lack of po litical unity and a single economic ideology of the large national federations, the top-heavy administrative structure, and the well-rooted system of highly centralized control. Industry-wide bargaining has proved ineffective in getting the greatest benefits to labor in various sections of the country. Factory unions are being looked upon now as the answer; they have begun to be established but have not yet become effective instruments. What is needed is a new type of leadership which can build the labor movement from the bottom up rather than from the top down. Young labor leaders are now being trained, and in their hands lies the key to the future of the Italian labor movement.—Ed.

The Inevitability of Political Unionism in Underdeveloped Countries: Italy, the Exemplar

Discusses the structure and government of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). Local unions within the AFL-CIO; Members of the Executive Council; Departments of the AFL-CIO. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)

The Italian Labor Movement in 1956: The Structure of Crisis

of our time is ever-expanding industrial production. New York State, in the present war of factories, has served as guide and counsel to prime contractors who wish to farm out defense work and to potential subcontractors who have facilities geared to the manufacture of vitally needed parts. In a situation in which the federal government must necessarily control production policies and programs, New York State-pioneering through the newly developed Division of Commerce as adviser to the perplexed businessman and as collector of facts upon which sound industrial advice must be based-has established a pattern of federal and state spheres of activity that will undoubtedly prove of lasting value in meeting the already recognizable problems of postwar readjustment. When the national emergency was declared last summer, Governor Herbert H. Lehman took immediate action to increase