Joseph D. Keenan: labor's ambassador in war and peace. - book reviews

Joseph D. Keenan: Labor's Ambassador in War and Peace

The subtitle of this recent book--"A Portrait of a Man and His Times'--sums up the two major function fulfilled by this important labor biography.

Joseph Keenan, from the beginning of his career until his death at 87 in July, was one of the best-liked and mostrespected leaders in the labor movement. Yet outside of labor, his important contributions to both national and labor history are little recognized.

At the same time, organized labor's pivotal roles in America's war effort and the rebuilding of Europe after World War II have been largely ignored by historians.

Gannon's book affords Keenan the recognition that he deserved--but never sought for himself--as both a labor statesman and in service to his country, and it documents accurately the participation of working people on the job and through their unions in the girding of America for war in the 1940s.

Of particular importance, the book examines in detail the role played by the American trade union movement --much through Keenan's efforts on the scene in Europe--in the rebuilding of the German trade unions smashed by Hitler almost immediately after he came to power.

Forty years later, German trade unionists speak with gratitude and admiration of Keenan's work for their revitalization. They point out, as well, that because Germany's trade unions were able to regain their feet fairly quickly after the war ended, they were able to participate vigorously in the shaping of the nation's new government and to insist that their long-held democratic traditions serve as a model for its structure.

As this book makes clear, without Joe Keenan's steady hand and his insistence on guaranteeing freedom of association and all trade union rights to German workers, that fierce voice for democracy might not have been heard.

The author points out that the biography is intended to be an overview of Keenan and his career rather than a definitive, scholarly account of his life and times.

Gannon effectively makes the point that although-- and perhaps because--Keenan had no hunger for personal publicity--his numerous achievements far outstrip his fame.

Keenan was born in Chicago in 1896, joined Electrical Workers Local 134 there as an apprentice in 1914, became the local's recording secretary in 1928, and from 1937 to 1951 served as secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor. He was elected secretary of the IBEW in 1957, a post he held until his retirement in 1976. He served as president of the AFL-CIO Union Label & Service Trades Dept. from 1975 to 1979.

In 1948, Keenan became director of COPE's forerunner, the AFL Labor's League for Political Action, and from 1951 to 1954 he also served as secretary of the AFL's Building & Construction Trades Dept.

A supporter of the merger, Keenan was elected to the Executive Council of the newly formed AFL-CIO in 1955 and was re-elected at each federation convention until his retirement. Among his key roles on the council was his chairmanship of the Housing Committee. His strong interest in affordable housing for working people bolstered the effort to create what is now the AFL-CIO's Housing Investment Trust.

But among the responsibilities closest to Keenan's heart--and those that secured him a place not only in labor but also in American history--were his services during World War II as the AFL's representative on the National Defense Advisory Commission created by President Roosevelt. During that period he also was labor vice chairman of the War Production Board where he was the linchpin in efforts that assured stable labor relations throughout the war and kept the nation's war production humming.

Keean went to Germany almost immediately after the war ended as labor adviser to Gen. Lucius Clay.

For his services, Keenan was awarded the nation's two highest civilian awards, the Medal of Freedom and the Award of Merit.

Gannon's account of Keenan's service over those years is meaty and satisfying, particularly in his use of Keenan's own recollections and those of major national figures who worked with him.

Among his contemporaries, Ambassador W. Averill Harriman observes in the book's preface that Keenan's name "became a legend both in wartime and beyond' becase of his "commitment to the national interest over any parochial or limited concerns, an open and friendly manner which immediately set others at ease; and a belief in the fundamental decency and good will of other human beings.'

Gannon says virtually all of Keenan's associates concur in that assessment of his personality and his approach to his duties. They also stress his tenacity to a cause in which he believed, and his unflagging--but not ungentlemanly --opposition to individuals or issues that attacked his deep personal beliefs or the labor movement he loved.

That grit, Gannon shows, was particularly apparent in Keenan's energeic political activities for Labor's League and later COPE.

Keenan was clearly a staunch anti-communist, but he was eqully an opponent of the tactics of Sen. Joseph Mc-Carthy, and he lost no love for Sen. Robert Taft either over his red-baiting or labor-hating.

But among the politicians who irked Keenan most was Richard Nixon. In the 1950s Keenan saw the then-Congressman Nixon as the personification of the worst anti-labor anti-progressive forces of the country.

Keenan later likened the AFL's role in the 1950 elections to "a rookie ballplayer coming up for his first year in the big league.' But the hard knocks that year--such as Taft's re-election--taught labor a lesson, he said.

"It taught us that we should let no political organization just give us a candidate and tell us we can take it or leave it.'

COPYRIGHT 1984 AFL-CIO
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