Workers' Education for What?

Abstract

LABOR HAS COME OF AGE. It is high time that in assuming its position of leadership it acquires a corresponding responsibility toward the mass of workers as well as toward other segments of the population. In our integrated society labor cannot divorce its interests from management, from agriculture or even from science. Hence, the purpose of a worker's education program should be to train the individual worker and potential leader not only how to function in a labor-management situation, but also how to be effective in the community and the society in which he lives. In the early days, it was natural for labor to focus all attention and effort on organization, the solution of internal problems, the fight for recognition at the bargaining table, and the improvement of working conditions and of the wage scale. These objectives are still important, but since labor has taken on the mantle of social, political and economic leadership, it must provide workers with information and explanations of problems affecting the entire national life. Millions of workers see no relationship between labor and agriculture, yet labor leaders support the Brannan Farm Program. As a matter of fact, many industrial workers, eager for a lowering of food prices do not understand that their own jobs depend on a stable and high level farm income. They do not realize that farmers spend their money for manufactured goods, and that when the farmer's income is cut and he stops spending, production lines in the factories slow down and the No HELP WANTED signs go up. It was along these broad, inclusive lines that I tried to move as a labor educational leader. In two positions-from I942 to i948 as a leader responsible for education in the CIO, and earlier as Executive Secretary