The UAW: An Aura of Hope

Many young, middleclass radicals know little more about organized labor in the United States than that it is “stagnant,” “sclerotic,” and “inert.” Such epithets would fit even better than they do if Walter Reuther had not recently applied all of them to other leaders of the AFLCIO, the federation he helped to create 12 years ago. Observing Reuther preside over the Special United Automobile Workers Convention in Detroit late this April, one could hardly doubt that he is the living refutation of his own general indictment. I left the Convention, and the Reuther aura, convinced that trade unionism in America has a vital future.

A word about that aura. It is both palpable and mysterious. Any man should be laughable who publicly “recnizes” dangers and says that he is “gonna” overcome them by “tran-salating” principles into action—and who keeps on mouthing threadbare cliches and tired old jokes. That, after 3...