Vol. 77/No. 17      May 6, 2013

On the industrial front, repressive measures were instituted through a presidential decree barring “strikes against the government.” This proscription extended beyond public employees and WPA [Works Progress Administration] workers. It was used to justify attacks on picket lines generally, through phony “government seizure” of struck facilities in private industry. Roosevelt could go only so far in acting as an outright strikebreaker before incurring serious political risks. So he stepped up governmental interference inside the trade unions, the object being to assure domination of the labor movement by bureaucrats who supported his line.

Vicious attacks followed on the political rights and civil liberties of militant workers, especially those opposed to Washington’s foreign policy. They were subjected to intensive red-baiting, as a propaganda cover for the actions taken against them. An assortment of presidential orders and legislative measures served as weapons in the assault. Among these was the notorious Smith Act. Labor’s “friend” in the White House signed that thought-control instrument into law in June 1940, despite widespread protests from labor and civil liberties organizations.

A key role in the unfolding witch-hunt was assigned to J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Roosevelt gave Hoover free rein to use his forces as political police. The top federal cop proceeded with great zeal in carrying out the assignment, and the president winked at the illegal methods Hoover employed in flagrant violation of the Bill of Rights. Undercover activities were carried on to infiltrate and disrupt trade unions and workers’ political parties. FBI operatives spied on labor organizations, functioned as agents provocateurs, planted or recruited informers in the workers’ ranks—all to engineer frame-ups of militants. Those who became targets of the political cops were prosecuted in a brutal manner, usually on charges of “conspiring” to violate one or another federal law.

In most instances the proceedings began with secret indictments on the stiffest possible counts. If the issuance of indictments was made public, the names of those involved were likely to be concealed. Surprise arrests followed, taking place as a rule in the small hours of the morning. The victims, who didn’t know they were wanted by the FBI, were dragged off to jail in a manner that enabled the boss press to dishonestly picture them as dangerous criminals. Once they had been put behind bars, outrageously high bail was set for their release pending trial.

New twists came into play when the cases were tried in the federal courts. Trumped-up evidence was presented by FBI agents and by stool pigeons who had been coached as government witnesses. When defendants took the stand to rebut the false testimony, U.S. attorneys subjected them to savage cross-examination and deliberate character assassination. Such acts of intimidation were accompanied by legal ploys devised to obstruct counsel for the defense. …

These tactics were intended to serve a broader purpose. They were designed to generate fear throughout the labor movement of the dire consequences that would result for anyone who got out of line with Roosevelt and Company.

Operations of this kind were thus begun against the Midwest Teamsters during 1938, in the aftermath of a bakery strike conducted by IBT Local 383 in Sioux City, Iowa. During the walkout a truck was allegedly burned near the Iowa-Minnesota line—far from Sioux City, where the actual struggle took place. The boss press tried to put the blame on Local 383. Local officers denounced the smear attack and suggested that a company had deliberately burned one of its rigs in a bid for public sympathy. In the end, the union won the fight. Peaceful relations were resumed with the bakery firms, and the incident was forgotten by everyone—except the federal police.

In the fall of 1939 the FBI arrested seven leaders of Teamster locals in Des Moines, Omaha, and Sioux City. All were charged with conspiracy in connection with the alleged truck-burning a year earlier. Since the Des Moines and Omaha locals had not been involved in the Sioux City dispute, there could be only one reason why officers of those unions were included in the roundup. The “burning” episode was being parlayed into an attack on the IBT’s main strongholds in the Missouri Valley, so as to weaken the organization throughout the entire region.

Preparation of the frame-up had begun soon after the bakery strike was settled. An elaborate survey was made of the highway at the state border, to cook up a phony claim that the 1938 incident was an interstate matter. That put the case under federal jurisdiction. Standard operating procedures were then followed—as described above—to secure indictments, make the arrests, put the defendants on trial, and railroad them to prison. All seven of the victimized Teamster leaders had to serve two-year terms.
 
 
Related articles:
Texas plant blast: ‘Bosses don’t care about safety’
Miners protest coal companies’ anti-union bankruptcy scheme
On the Picket Line
After 20 months sugar workers approve contract, lockout ends
‘Now we need to stay together as a union’
 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home