Abstract

"Red" Unions and the A. F. of L

It is a little over two years since the Communists decided for independent leadership in the trade unions and took the lead in organizing the Trade Union Unity League out of the elements gathered together in the Trade Union Educational League. The latter had been organized by William Z. Foster in 1921 as a riliying point for all progressives and radicals who favored industrial and democratic unionism and were positively opposed to the American Federation of Labor officialdom. Its policy was to organize anti-administration groups within the old unions. By 1928, the only anti-administration elements who were still countenanced in the old unions were the progressives and Socialists, who had dissociated themselves from their pit-war policy of "boring from within for control" and substituted a policy of gradual education. In lieu of a gigantic relief fund such as no effort could possibly raise today, food, clothing and housing will have to be obtained from workers in other industries in the central strike regions.