Carrol Cox : When he made that speech his administration had already officially changed its name from New Deal to Win the War. It was wartime rhetoric.
^^^^^^
CB: Winning the war against fascism was the number one priority of the world's working class at that moment. So, "Win the War" was the best Marxist, socialist slogan then. That FDR had that slogan does not indicate that he had moved off the left dime, rather that he was on it.
One classical way that Communists differentitate themselves from other working class parties is by considering the interests of the working class _as a whole_. ( See The Manifesto) In the context of guiding idea of "workers of the world , unite", the class as a whole is the international working class,not just the American working class. The Soviet working class, which had recently instituted a socialist revolution , and thereby played a leading role for all the working classes of all countries, was in mortal jeopardy from Nazism. But it was not just the "commie" workers who were in trouble. Before the invasion of the SU, the workers of pretty much all of continental Europe were shoved under the fascist boot ! It would have been the end of all European trade unions if fascism had triumphed. Supporting and defending the Soviet lead contingent of the international working class, as well as rescuing most of the working class in capitalist European countries, was more important than striking for relatively small immediate economic gains in the U.S. The correct Marxist position in 1944 was to argue the world _political_ situation to American auto, steel etc. workers, as I have in brief here. Those on these lists and the left who "oppose" the CP wartime positions on these issues are dead wrong. (The Reutherite faux militancy on theses issues was opportunistic , phony leftism. For in the long run , it is Reutherism that has made a de facto "no strike pledge.")
Thereby, Roosevelt's emphasis on winning the war , was in line with the best communist analysis of that concrete moment, which was giving first priority to the war against fascism. The no strike pledge _was_ the left position.