MORAL REARMAMENT EXPOSED (Some Anti-Labour Tendencies—II)

This is the second of two articles explaining how Moral Rearmament operates in the Trade Union movement.

Moral Re-Armament works hard to convince workers that it has their interests at heart. One of its boasts is that it is responsible for creating better relations between workers and management.

Let's see how this works in practice. Take the case of M. Jacques Hilst, a French building employer, and his workers.

As a result of being inspired by M.R.A., M. Hilst's workers actually volunteered to forego all travelling expenses when they were working out of the district. They also offered to work an extra hour per day without any pay. Naturally enough, M. Hilst is now thoroughly convinced of the advantages of Buchmanism.

In return for the co-operation of the workers the generous M. Hilst set up a Works Council.

Who got the money?

M.R.A. has also extended its activities to India. The M.R.A. Information Service publication for April 9, 1953, quotes a Madras director of a film company as saying, 'the new spirit in his studios made it possible for him to have work done in one and a half hours for which he had previously had to allow eight hours.' This saved the director £420.

Whether Buchman, the director, or God got the £420, the report neglects to say.

John Riffe, a Right-wing union boss in the American Congress of Industrial Organizations, told a U.S. Senator: 'Senator, you must tell America that when Frank Buchman changed John Riffe he saved American industry 500 million dollars.' That of course is the type of 'absolute unselfishness' American employers like.

Commenting on Riffe's statement, Buchman asked, 'can this be the answer to inflation?'

The M.R.A. film, 'Light of Tomorrow', was shown in New York to the Brooklyn dockers by courtesy of Tony Anastasio, a vice-president of the International Longshoremen's Association.

Tony is the brother of the late, unlamented Albert Anastasio, whose colourful if rather gruesome nickname was 'Lord Chief High Executioner.' Albert performed his executioning duties for Murder Incorporated.

The 'absolutely honest' Buchmanites neglect to inform us that the I.L.A. is a racket-ridden union, whose officials, including Tony, maintain their rule by the use of muscle-men, guns and cement-jackets.

Swedish dockers, too, have enjoyed the dubious privileges of M.R.A. A shipping employer at Goteborg promised full managerial support to M.R.A. after two leading docker militants who had formerly opposed their boss, ended their 'bad ways' and joined a local M.R.A. group in the city.

M.R.A. and Docks

For years the pink-cheeked and sartorially elegant young men who act as ambassadors for M.R.A. have done their best to win British dockers. During the Canadian Seamen's Strike, M.R.A. called a special conference in London. They invited the strike leaders, promising to pay all expenses. Their attempts to break the strike were unsuccessful.

During the 1951 dock strike over wages, they constantly visited the homes of the Merseyside leaders. Danny Brandon, who was secretary of the strike committee, told me how they offered to take him and his wife to the Adelphi Hotel—the best hotel in Liverpool—for dinner. Always their line was the same: 'We sympathise with your aims but you are going about it the wrong way. You should stop fighting each other (bosses and dockers) and get together.'

Put bluntly, this meant end the strike, and go back to work.

Brandon asked one M.R.A. representative how did he get the messages from God which he claimed to receive. The answer was: 'I sit down with a pencil and some notepaper and God communicates to me.'

They agreed that Brandon should try this method. After a time Brandon handed him his 'God-given message.'

It read: 'B———r off!' Faithful to the Lord's dictates, he did.

A candid appreciation of the work of M.R.A. was given by the President of the Association of Cut Sole Manufacturers. He tells how in a factory influenced by M.R.A. 'manpower was reduced by 25 per cent., the remainder worked so well that production did not suffer.'

Recently a group of Ruhr miners have been cavorting around Europe performing a play for M.R.A. In France these 'militant' trade unionists were greeted by none other than M. Vandenberg, the secretary of the local Employers' Association.

Their invitation to Paris came from Guy Mollet who, during his spell as French premier, helped to fill the jails of France and Algeria with Arab trade unionists.

'Yellow unions'

M.R.A. has not confined its activities simply to working within the unions. In 1952 they reported that dockers from Genoa were among the dockers from 13 other major ports who had 'sent invitations to their colleagues to form a dockers' international at Caux.'

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions issued a statement on September 15, 1953, dealing with M.R.A. and its work. The I.C.F.T.U. found M.R.A. not only interfered in trade union activities, but were guilty of 'anti-trade union efforts, even to the extent of trying to found yellow unions.'

It is of course inevitable that M.R.A. should pursue policies which are diametrically opposed to the interests of the working class. Their philosophy of 'change yourself' ascribes the faults of the world as being due to man's inner selfishness and not to the social system.

This means that instead of organizing working people to remove capitalism, socialists should spend their time and energies on convincing workers of the need to co-operate with the employers.

Giulio Pastore, the I.C.F.T.U. representative of the Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, commenting on M.R.A.'s programme, said, 'the workers are full of good faith and belief in human solidarity, but unfortunately they have found it otherwise with the employers.'

Pastore explained how many employers had visited Caux and delivered fine speeches about social progress, but once they had returned to Italy they forgot all about them. He commented succinctly: 'This proves the old Italian proverb: the wolf can lose his hairs, but not his viciousness.'