Walter Reuther: Address before the Berlin Freedom Rally

As head of the United Automobile Workers, Walter Reuther was one of the most important figures in the history of American labor. Not only did he win significant benefits for manufacturing workers, he also had a revolutionary vision for a society that would form a partnership between management, business, and workers in decision making. In his many public addresses, Reuther sought to depict the American laborer as part of the middle class, placing blue-collar and white-collar workers on the same level. In his Address before the Berlin Freedom Rally, Reuther, who was an advocate of dialogue between the United States and the Soviet Union, put forward his vision of a worldwide labor movement that rejected Communism.