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In targeting UAW Local 600, HUAC was selecting one of the bulwarks of left-
wing influence in the United States. To be sure, HUAC’s assumption that communists
dominated the local was inaccurate.^3 However, the left had played a decisive part in
the early underground phase of the unionization effort at Ford and in winning unity
between African American and white workers. Communists continued to function in
the local’s progressive caucus, which retained a sizeable following in the local. In the
March 1951 local union election, candidates affiliated with the progressive caucus
had won three of the four highest offices in the local, the presidencies of several
units (buildings), and about half the seats on the local’s executive board and general
council. The sizeable left and progressive presence in the membership and lead-
ership of Local 600 often led the organization to take controversial stands on both
trade union and political matters. Local 600 was one of the few large organizations
advocating a cease fire in Korea in 1951. It spoke out “for international peace and
cooperation of all nations” and against “an impending World War III” during the
Korean War when such ideas were branded as Communist in the mass media.^4
Contributing to the orthodox concern with Local 600 was the fact that it served
as an important base of support for radicalism within the African American commu-
nity. This situation occurred because of the employment of a large number of African
Americans, the inclusion of African Americans in leadership at the unit and local
levels, and the significant role the local played in community affairs. The Ford Rouge
complex became the Detroit area’s largest employer of African American workers in
the 1920s and about twelve thousand African American workers were employed at
the complex in 1952. The highest ranking African American official, William Hood,
the local’s recording secretary, served as the president of the National Negro Labor
Council (NNLC), a left-led national organization of African American trade unionists.^5
Although influential in Local 600, the left was also vulnerable there. The anti-
communist Walter Reuther had won control of the UAW’s national leadership in
November 1947. An opponent of the left, Carl Stellato, was elected president of
Local 600 in 1950 and initiated an anti-communist campaign that included a require-
ment that all 550 elected and appointed local representatives sign a loyalty oath.
Stellato attempted to remove five unit officers from their positions on the grounds
that they were Communists and, thus, not eligible for office under the union’s consti-
tution. Substantial opposition to the anti-communist campaign, however, led to the
defeat of the purge effort and Stellato’s abandonment of his anti-communist effort.
He retained the presidency of the local in a close 1951 election. Although dropped
by Local 600’s president, HUAC recalled Stellato’s charges during its 1952 hearings
as did the UAW international leadership when it took action against Local 600 in the
wake of the HUAC public relations onslaught.^6
Among other important organizations that HUAC interrogated in Detroit were the
Civil Rights Congress (CRC) and the National Negro Labor Council (NNLC). The Civil
Rights Congress was formed in 1946 as a merger of the International Labor Defense
and the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties. As an organization whose
focus was the defense of democratic rights, the Civil Rights Congress was involved in
campaigns for justice for the Martinsville Seven, Willie McGee, and other victims of
racist repression. In 1951 Paul Robeson and William Patterson presented to the United
Nations the CRC petition, We Charge Genocide which chronicled the violence and
denial of African American people’s rights taking place in the United States. Although
modest in numbers, with five hundred to one thousand members, the Detroit chapter
of the CRC had an active staff and broad community support. Anne Shore, the Detroit
CRC’s Director of Organization, recalled that the organization “depended on a coalitionTopIC I | the origins of the Cold War 44320_STA_2012_ch19_427-446.indd 443 16/04/15 4:37 PM