In a memorable speech last week before the National Religion and Labor Foundation in New York, newly elected A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany bluntly scored some U.S. liberals and international neutralists for avoiding the facts of 20th century political life. Excerpts:
"Too many in the free world fail to see the real nature of Communism as the mortal foe of everything that we hold dear, of every moral and spiritual value. Too many are still prisoners of the illusion that Communism is, historically speaking, a progressive system . . . extreme liberalism temporarily making bad mistakes. Actually, Communism represents darkest reaction. It is an anti-social system in which there are embedded some of the worst features of savagery, slavery, feudalism and life-sapping exploitation manifested in the industrial revolution of early-day capitalism.
"Too many in the free world seem to have lost their capacity for moral indignation against the most brutal inhumanities when they are perpetrated by Communists. It is painful, but we must face the cruel facts of life. It is disturbing to me that many people in our country who call themselves liberals are stone silent about the Soviet concentration camps. They never find the time to utter a word of condemnation against the Communist imperialist destruction of the national independence and democratic rights of hundreds of millions of people in Europe and Asia.
"One would expect the true liberal to cry out in protest. Communism is the deadliest enemy of liberalism. Liberals should be the most consistent and energetic fighters against Communism. Liberals must also be on guard against developing a certain type of McCarthyism of their own. They must shun like a plague the role of being anti antiCommunist. Only by refusing to be thus entrapped can liberals shed every vestige of subconscious and conscious regard for Communism as a movement with which they have something in common.
"No country, no people, no movement can stand aloof and be neutral. Nehru and Tito are not neutral. They are aides and allies [of the Communists] in fact and in effect, if not in diplomatic verbiage.
"The conflict between Communism and freedom is the problem of our time. It overshadows all other problems. This conflict mirrors our age, its toils, its tensions, its troubles and its tasks. On the outcome of this conflict depends the future of all mankind. I pray that, on the threshold of the atomic age, we of the free world can muster the moral courage and total strength to preserve peace and promote the freedom of the men and women of every continent, color and creed."