These forces used fierce red-baiting to link the organizing work of Lewis, Mortimer and their allies to political affiliation with Soviet Russia. To presume Moscow domination of this group discredited the activities of all left-leaning people as well as the few real communists who, in fact, strongly belived in the CIO's goals. For those many thousands who couldn't afford to pay rent, the communists in spite of all this propaganda, were looked upon as true friends who led the antieviction campaigns.

MORTIMER'S sympathies for the Party stemmed not from any love of Joe Stalin but from the street realities of a union organizer.

I am aware of the fact that we in America have been brainwashed and intimidated until such words as peace and socialism are never mentioned in polite society. But these two words must be heard loudly and constantly.

Anti-communism destroyed most of the progress of the thirties, leaving the rebellous CIO a docile partner of the AFL. Despite the political orientation of the leadership of the AFL-CIO. Mortimer remained forever optimistic:

Presently, as in the past, the greatest hope of American labor is in the rank-and-file membership, the men and women who pay their dues and who maintain unity and solidarity at the bench, the lathe, and the assembly line. When a little more experience has taught them a few more facts of life, they will decide they have had enough. The leaders who have forgotten their origin and mission will be swept aside. Their places will be taken by younger and more militant leaders, fresh from the shop, mill, and factory. rest assured, this new and younger leadership is already in the making. We may not yet have heard their names but to double that these future leaders exist is to doubt the whole of American labor history.

DeCaux's story is vitally relevant to Cambridge radicals. Coming from a background similar to that of many people at Harvard, he spent his life serving the labor movement.

Although, partly due to his legacy, he chose to become a labor writer, he put in his time in dirt poverty. One starts to suspect him of reverting to a soft life when he did find a relatively soft job on a labor paper. But he is one step ahead of the reader's thoughts:

I was aware all this was allecting me. With an appeased stomach, a regular salary, and work that is pleasant and socially useful, one doesn't sweat it so much. A lot of things can wait--including the revolution. I still wanted it, but with less subjective urgency maybe.

Radicals at Harvard or from any middle-class area suffer from this phenomenon. While we all indulge in this sort of "easy radicalism" we must accept that, for most of us unwilling to change our social class completely, we are not the leaders of the Movement. Standing above the day-to-day struggle, we are still capable of rendering effective aid even if most of us will probably help in semi-professional elitist capacities as intellectuals, journalists, doctors,or lawyers.

Middle-class guilt is a boring display of political infancy Our task is to dig in, In whatever way possible. We should accent what we are, recognize and deal with our faults and work from there to defeat the madness of imperialism.