Anti-nazi Body, A.f.of L. Merge Boycott Work

Consolidation of the anti-Nazi boycott activities of the American Federation of Labor and the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League was announced Friday by Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, vice president of the League, who represented the League in the merger negotiations with William Green, president of the A.F. of L.

Mr. Green named a committee of three to effected the consolidation. On the committee are Joseph P. Ryan, president of the Central Trades and Labor Council of New York, John Fitzpatrick, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor and Miss Selma Borchardt, vice president of the American Federation of Teachers.

The merger will combine the activities of the A.F. of L., the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League and the Chicago Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, which is the Middle West affiliate of the League. The Chicago committee is headed by Salmon O. Levinson, co-author of the Kellogg Peace Pact.

“The American Federation of Labor went on record last October at its convention in favor of a boycott of Nazi merchandise,” Mr. Green said, “not only because of the persecution of the Jews by Hitler but also because of the destruction of the German labor union and the confiscation of labor’s property. The Jewish people are fighting in self defense against the rising tide of political reaction, national chauvinism and ‘racial intolerance. But other groups must wage a similar defensive war against this selfsame menace, particularly trade unions which are the first to succumb whenever Fascism triumphs. It is therefore most logical that in the attack upon Hitlerism and Fascism organized labor should form one unified front with the hosts of Israel and other liberal groups against the common foe, for every anti-Semite is, under the skin, an enemy of freedom and the working class.”

pointing out that the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League was the first to launch the boycott movement in this country Dr. Silver declared:

“The Nazis who have here to fore been inclined to ignore the boycott have finally been forced to acknowledge it. The sharp drop in exports is officially laid to the boycott, where of course, it properly belongs. The economic pressure of the world upon the regime which had boasted that it was indifferent to the world’s opinion has had crushing effect and the Nazis have begun to whine and threaten.

“The boycott is a legitimate and moral weapon, and it is only fitting that labor should fight hand in hand with the other enemies of hated Hitlerism. The boycott movement has been the most amazingly spontaneous movement among the masses of the people in recent history. An innate and sound group instinct led our people to act even before any leadership was given the movement or any program announced. But in order to make the boycott 100 per cent effective it is necessary that the leader of the various groups opposed to the Hitler tyranny unite their efforts. It is that which has moved the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League and the American Federation of Labor to consolidate their boycott activities.”