On one side is the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI). LABI is running a well organized, highly financed campaign. It includes dozens of time slots on the major radio and TV stations throughout Louisiana as well as large ads in all of the state dailies.

On the other side is the trade union movement. On June 6, in Baton Rouge, the state capital, more than 10,000 workers turned out for a statewide AFL-CIO protest against the proposed law.

Victor Bussie, state AFL-CIO president, declared at the demonstration, "This law would lower your wages, bust up and weaken the unions, and make working conditions worse. If they win, they won’t stop here. We have got to let the legislature know we don’t want this law at all."

Louisiana is the only state in the South that does not have a so-called right to work law on the books.

These laws make the union shop illegal--thereby allowing workplaces that have union shops to hire nonunion workers.

The bosses claim union shops "violate the democratic rights of workers" and that workers will be better off without them.

On a nationwide basis the attack on the union shop is being organized by the National Right to Work Committee, founded in 1955 by former U.S. Rep. Fred Hartley. Hartley was cosponsor of the notorious antilabor Taft-Hartley Act.

June 25, 1951
NEW YORK, June 20--Twenty-one leaders of the Communist Party were indicted here today by a Federal Grand Jury in a Justice Department move that signalizes the expansion of the witchhunt on a broad scale as a result of the Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the notorious Smith Gag Act. Seventeen early morning arrests were made in typically secret police style, while the remaining four are being sought.

The arrested 17 were arraigned on the strength of a fantastic indictment, which, by a brazen vagueness, indicates the contempt felt by the government for any serious process of law, and a feeling of arrogant confidence that under prevailing conditions any "anti-Communist" indictments, no matter how slipshod or foolish, will be upheld in the courts.

In all, 29 "overt acts" are charged in the indictment. Fully 15 of these simply allege that the defendant "did issue a directive and cause it to be circulated," adding in some cases "through Political Affairs" (Stalinist party magazine).

Six other listed "overt acts" allege participation in a "meeting" or a class, in most cases without indicating the location, purpose, composition, or nature of the alleged meeting. In one case, the charge is that the defendant participated in a meeting of the International Workers Order, a fraternal and insurance organization.

In two cases, charges are apparently based solely on the appearance or activities of a defendant at 35 E. 12th St., the CP national headquarters building, which also contains a public bookstore.  
 
 
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