Sunday, November 24, 2013

Wyndham Mortimer was labor's voice against fascism and war; for democracy and peace.

"...If our enormous productivity is diverted to a peace time economy, and trade re-opened with all the world, it would certainly result in a 'swift expansion of the material well being' for all the world.

"The threat of widespread unemployment would vanish, and we could look forward to generations of peace.

"The continuation of the present insane war economy can result only in more taxes, more misery; more of our sons wasting their precious lives; abysmal poverty for generations to come, a lower standard of living, a complete loss of all the liberties we praise so highly..."

Wyndham Mortimer writing in 1953 to members of the United Auto Workers union.

Mortimer had been the UAW Vice-President in charge of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and he signed the first contract with General Motors on behalf of the UAW.

Mortimer was expelled from the UAW in 1938 for being a "Red;" but a few months later militant rank-and-file members won his re-instatement in the union.

Mortimer joined the Socialist Party of Eugene Debs in 1908; in 1932 he joined the Communist Party and remained a member until his death in 1966.