Walter Reuther: Address before the Berlin Freedom Rally

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It is a great joy for me to be in Berlin once again. I greet you and extend to you the hand of friendship and solidarity in behalf of the 16 million members of the American trade union movement.

Berlin is once again the testing ground for freedom. It is not your freedom alone that is being challenged by Soviet tyranny. It is our freedom as well as your freedom, for freedom is an indivisible value and when the freedom of one is threatened, the freedom of all is in jeopardy. No man and no people live as an island unto themselves. We all live in one world—a world which grows smaller and smaller every day as science and technology move forward. You do not stand alone. Your American trade union colleagues stand firmly with you. The people of America and the people of the free world stand firmly with you in defense of our common freedom.

As you know, I am no newcomer to your city. I first came here during the dark days of 1933 when the shadow of Hitlerism fell across your city. I was with you again at the war’s end as you struggled to reestablish the basis of normal economic life and when blind prejudice tried to prevent the restoration of essential industry. I was with you speaking out against the evil policy of dismantlement. But the new despotism of the East was not content to dismantle factories. It was soon obvious they were determined to dismantle freedom and life itself. Their effort to starve you into submission through the blockade failed because of your courage and determination. The blockade failed because the entire free world stood firmly with you.…

Today, as I stand facing the Brandenburg Gate, I think not only of the threats to our mutual freedom but also of the millions who live on the other side of this gate and on the other side of the Iron Curtain which locks out freedom and human dignity. I hope that our voices from this great rally of free men might carry through and beyond the Brandenberg Gate, penetrating the Iron Curtain, not only to East Berliners but likewise to the heroes of Poznan and Budapest and, yes, to the latest victims of Communist aggression in remote Tibet.…

The free labor movement is in the vanguard of the struggle for peace and freedom because we have understood that the struggle for peace and freedom is inseparably tied together with the struggle for social justice. Peace and freedom cannot be made secure in a vacuum. They must be made secure in a world in which pressing human problems cry for a solution.

I can say in truthfulness that the only war in which the American people wish to engage is this war against poverty, hunger, against ignorance and disease. In such a war all mankind will be victors. The promise of such a world at peace, dedicating its combined resources to the fulfillment of human needs everywhere, will kindle the same hopes and warm response in the hearts of Russian people as among the people in the free world.…

In this hour of tension and uncertainty keep strong your faith in freedom’s cause—keep strong your faith in yourselves. Your freedom and the freedom of the whole world is being put to the test in Berlin. Stand fast, for you do not stand alone. The people of America—the people of the free world—stand firmly with you in friendship and solidarity. Together we shall keep the door to freedom open in Berlin. Together we shall build a world of peace, freedom, security, social justice, and brotherhood.