The United Garment Workers of America (UGW or UGWA) was a United States labor union which existed between 1891 and 1994. It was an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor .
110-743: The UGWA was formed in New York in April 1891 and led a successful strike of 16,000 garment workers in New York City in 1893, but soon adopted a more conservative, conciliatory tone with manufacturers. Thomas A. Rickert of Chicago served as UGW's president from 1904 through at least 1939. At the UGW's 1914 convention in Nashville, Tennessee, a number of large urban locals, with stronger Socialist loyalties and more willingness to strike, and who represented
220-492: A "clearly undemocratic, quasi-Leninist platform" that lobbied for the removal of the current "bogus democracy of capitalist parliamentarianism". Wanting the government to be replaced by a "genuine worker's democracy", the American Socialist Party stated that "whether or not it is a majority, will not shrink from the responsibility of organizing and maintaining a government under the workers' rule". This
330-484: A "specific, concrete, definite, affirmative declaration of guilt" of the five Assemblymen before they were ever charged with any offense. It was also Sweet who appointed the members of the Judiciary Committee to which the matter was referred. "Thus the accuser selects his own judges", Hillquit declared. Hillquit sought to remove for reasons of bias any members of the Judiciary Committee who had taken part in
440-586: A bank, Amalgamated Bank , that would serve labor's interests. Hillman and the ACWA had strong ties to many progressive reformers, such as Jane Addams and Clarence Darrow . Hillman was, on the other hand, opposed to revolutionary unionism and to the Communist Party USA . While Hillman had maintained warm relations with the Communist Party during the early 1920s—at a time when his leadership
550-503: A citywide labor action of almost 40,000 workers that lasted until February 1911. Chicago was then the largest producer of men's garments in the United States, Hart Schaffner & Marx the largest of Chicago manufacturers, and UGW the only union in the industry. The strike was a bitter one, with hundreds of strikers injured and two killed. Future union president Sidney Hillman was a rank-and-file leader, and lawyer Clarence Darrow
660-714: A continued effort to gain control of the SPA at its forthcoming Emergency National Convention in Chicago, to be held at the end of August, while another section, headed by the Russian Socialist Federation of Alexander Stoklitsky and Nicholas Hourwich and the Socialist Party of Michigan seeking to wash its hands of the Socialist Party and immediately move to establish a new Communist Party of America . Eventually, this latter Federation-dominated group
770-656: A date that was not selected accidentally. The 1st National Convention of the CPPA was assembled in Cleveland at the city auditorium, which was packed with close to 600 delegates representing international unions, state federations of labor, branches of cooperative societies, state branches and national officers of the Socialist, Farmer-Labor and Progressive Parties as well as the Committee of 48 , state and national affiliates of
880-526: A fellow veteran of the Hart. Schaffner & Marx strike of 1910, succeeded Hillman upon his death in 1946. The Amalgamated continued to grow during the 1950s, crossing the 300,000 member threshold in 1951, but, like other garment unions, faced long-term pressures from the flight of unionized work to non-union manufacturers in the South and abroad. The ACWA had played a leading role in the funding and leadership of
990-466: A four-month lockout in New York City , but came away in an even stronger position. By 1920, the union had contracts with 85 percent of men's garment manufacturers and had reduced the workweek to 44 hours. Under Hillman's leadership, the union tried to moderate the fierce competition between employers in the industry by imposing industry wide working standards, thereby taking wages and hours out of
1100-523: A full two-thirds of the national membership, split off to form the rival Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America under Hillman's founding leadership. In 1994, the UGW's 15,000 members merged into the United Food and Commercial Workers . The union came to national attention with the 1910 Chicago Garment Workers' Strike , which had started as a spontaneous strike on September 22, by a handful of women workers at Hart Schaffner & Marx . It spread to
1210-438: A gathering that punted on the issue of committing itself to the 1924 presidential campaign, deciding instead to "immediately issue a call for a convention of workers, farmers, and progressives for the purpose of taking action on nomination of candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States, and on other questions that may come before the convention". The decisive moment finally came on July 4, 1924,
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#17327767469101320-959: A halfway house for Socialists and other leftists who wanted to support FDR's reelection but were not prepared to join the Democratic Party. Dubinsky later split from the Labor Party over personal and political differences with Hillman to found the Liberal Party of New York . ACWA represented strikers in the Farah strike , 1972–1974. Lindsay, Debra. The Clothes Off Our Back: A History of ACTWU 459. Manitoba Labour History Series, Winnipeg: Manitoba Labour Education Centre, 1995. ISBN 0-9695258-6-9 Socialist Party of America Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary The Socialist Party of America ( SPA )
1430-479: A new political party. The Socialist Party was an enthusiastic supporter of the CPPA and the group dominated its thinking from the start of 1922 through the first quarter of 1925. In this period of organizational weakness, the party sought to forge lasting ties with the existing trade union movement, leading in short order to a mass labor party in the United States on the British model. A first National Conference of
1540-599: A new union known as UNITE HERE . After a bitter internal dispute in 2009, the majority of the UNITE side of the union, along with some of the disgruntled HERE locals left UNITE HERE, and formed a new union named Workers United , led by former UNITE president Bruce Raynor . In 1914, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America—also known as "ACWA" or simply "the Amalgamated"—formed as a result of
1650-551: A parallel convention. It was this gathering that established itself as the Communist Labor Party on August 31, 1919. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Chicago, the Federations and Michiganders and their supporters established the Communist Party of America at a convention gaveled to order on September 1, 1919. Unity between these two communist organizations was a lengthy and complicated process, formally taking place at
1760-466: A resolution declaring your seat herein vacant, pending a hearing before a tribunal of this house, you will be given an opportunity to appear before such tribunal to prove your right to a seat in this legislative body, and upon the result of such hearing and the findings of the Assembly tribunal, your right to participate in the actions of this body will be determined. The Assembly suspended the quintet by
1870-669: A secret convention held at the Overlook Mountain House hotel near Woodstock, New York , in May 1921 with the establishment of a new unified Communist Party of America. A Left Wing loyal to the Communist International remained in the Socialist Party through 1921, continuing the fight to bring the Socialist Party into the ranks of the Comintern. This group, which opposed the underground secret organizations
1980-491: A socialist ticket was in 1912 , when Debs gained 901,551 total votes, 6% of the popular vote. In 1920 , Debs ran again, this time while imprisoned for opposing World War I, and received 913,693 votes, 3.4% of the total. Early political perspectives ranged from radical socialism to social democracy. Victor Berger and New York party leader Morris Hillquit sat on the party's more social democratic or right-wing side. Radical socialists and syndicalists, including Debs and members of
2090-487: A special election was held to fill the five seats vacated by the Assembly, with each of the five expelled Socialists running for reelection against a "fusion" candidate representing the combined Republican and Democratic parties. All five Socialists were returned to office. Three of the five, Waldman, Claessens and Solomon, were again denied their seats after a contentious debate by votes of 90 to 45 on September 21, 1920. Orr and DeWitt, deemed less culpable than their peers by
2200-484: A vote of 140 to 6, with one Democrat supporting the Socialists. Civil libertarians and concerned citizens raised their voices to aid the suspended Socialists and protest percolated throughout the press. The principal argument was that the expulsion of elected members of minority parties by majority parties from their councils set a dangerous precedent in a democracy. The battle culminated in a highly publicized trial in
2310-787: A week after the Palmer Raids had swept and stunned the country, the New York Assembly was called to order. The majority Republicans easily elected their candidate for the Speaker, Thaddeus C. Sweet and after opening day formalities the body took a brief recess. Back in session, Sweet declared: "The Chair directs the Sergeant-at-Arms to present before the bar of the House Samuel A. DeWitt , Samuel Orr , Louis Waldman , Charles Solomon , and August Claessens ",
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#17327767469102420-648: The 1912 elections . Sixteen Socialist candidates in the 1912 House elections received over 20% of the popular vote and five of those received over 30%. In June 1918, Debs made an anti-draft speech, calling for draft resistance . Urging young men to ignore the draft law was a crime under the Sedition Act of 1918 and Debs was convicted and sentenced to serve ten years in prison. President Warren G. Harding commuted his and two dozen others' sentences at Christmastime 1921. According to historian Sally Miller, Victor Berger : In January 1919, Vladimir Lenin invited
2530-527: The American Federation of Labor (AFL). AFL leadership, headed by Samuel Gompers , strongly opposed the Socialist Party, but many rank-and-file unionists in the early 20th century saw the Socialists as reliable political allies. Many moderate Socialists, such as Berger and International Typographical Union President Max S. Hayes , urged close cooperation with the AFL and its member unions. Others in
2640-828: The Congress of Industrial Organizations . It merged with the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) in 1976 to form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU), which merged with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in 1995 to create the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). UNITE merged in 2004 with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) in 2004 to create
2750-552: The Fair Labor Standards Act . Within the AFL, the ACWA was one of the strongest advocates for organizing the mass production industries, such as automobile manufacture and steel, where unions had almost no presence, as well as the textile industry, which was only partially organized. Hillman was one of the original founders in 1935 of the Committee for Industrial Organizing, an effort led by John L. Lewis , and
2860-673: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), sat on the left. There were also agrarian utopian-leaning radicals, such as Julius Wayland of Kansas, who edited the party's leading national newspaper, Appeal to Reason , along with trade unionists; Jewish, Finnish and German immigrants; and intellectuals such as Walter Lippmann and the Black activist/intellectual Hubert Harrison . The party outsourced its newspapers and publications so that it would not have an internal editorial board that
2970-610: The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU, or ILG), in years to come, it had far less influence over the ACWA. The Amalgamated solidified its gains and extended its power in Chicago through a series of strikes in the last half of the 1910s. The Amalgamated found it harder, on the other hand, to make gains in Baltimore , where it was able to sign an agreement with one of the largest manufacturers that, like HSM (Hart Schaffner and Marx) in Chicago, sought labor peace, it found itself at odds with an unusual alliance of UGW locals,
3080-555: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People . Walling and Ovington both argued inside the party that it had not done enough to oppose racism and they were joined by other left-wing intellectuals who published articles in the party press about the importance of anti-racism to the socialist cause, including Hubert Harrison and I. M. Rubinow . The party had a tense and complicated relationship with
3190-646: The October Revolution in the Russian Republic in 1917 and the establishment of the Communist International in 1919—many members left the Socialist Party to found Leninist Parties. After endorsing Robert M. La Follette 's Progressive Party in 1924 , the party returned to independent action at the presidential level. It had modest growth in the early 1930s behind presidential candidate Norman Thomas . The party's appeal
3300-554: The Social Democratic Federation . While the party was always strongly anti-fascist as well as anti-Stalinist , its opposition to American entry in World War II cost it both internal and external support. The party stopped running presidential candidates after 1956 , when its nominee, Darlington Hoopes , won fewer than 6,000 votes. In the party's last decades, its members, many of them prominent in
3410-400: The South . The Socialist Party of Louisiana initially adopted a "Negro clause" that opposed disenfranchisement of blacks , but it supported segregation. The clause was supported by some Southern socialists and opposed by others, although this was not because of its accommodation of racism as such, but because it officially enshrined this accommodation. The party's National Committee persuaded
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3520-716: The Soviet Union . Leaders of two of its caucuses formed separate socialist organizations, the Socialist Party USA and the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee , the precursor of the Democratic Socialists of America . The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all. [...] The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for
3630-641: The Workers Party of America , sent four delegates to the CPPA's December 1922 gathering. But after protracted debate, the Credentials Committee strongly objected to the participation of Communist representatives in its proceedings and issued a recommendation that Workers Party's representatives and youth organization not be seated. The Socialist Party's delegates strongly supported excluding the Communists and acted accordingly, even though
3740-664: The "Regulars", who controlled a big majority of the seats of the Socialist Party's governing NEC. When it seemed certain that the 1919 party elections for a new NEC had been dominated by the Left Wing, the sitting NEC, citing voting irregularities, refused to tally the votes, declared the entire election invalid and in May 1919 suspended the party's Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian, Polish, South Slavic and Hungarian language federations , in addition to Michigan's entire state organization. In future weeks, Massachusetts's and Ohio's state organizations were similarly disfranchised and "reorganized" by
3850-446: The "forces of every progressive, liberal, and radical organization of the workers must be mobilized" to repel conservative assaults and "advance the industrial and political power of the working class". This desire for common action seems to have been shared by various unions, as late in 1921 a call was issued in the name of the country's 16 major railway labor unions seeking a Conference for Progressive Political Action (CPPA). The CPPA
3960-604: The 1912 platform of the Tennessee party stated that white supremacist ideology was a tool of the capitalist class to divide and rule the working class, while the Virginia party passed a resolution three years earlier to focus more attention on encouraging solidarity between black and white workers and to invite nonwhite workers to join the party. Most notable was the Socialist Party of Oklahoma , which led opposition to
4070-651: The ACWA followed the Mine Workers and other unions out of the AFL in 1937 to establish the CIO as a separate union confederation. With the new federation establishing itself as a viable alternative to the AFL, Hillman would serve as its first vice president. The ACWA experienced prodigious growth during the CIO's early years. At the federation's founding in 1935, the ACWA's members numbered roughly 100,000, but by 1940, they had more than doubled, counting 239,000 members in 265 locals. The ACWA provided major financial support for
4180-613: The ACWA. The ACWA merged with the TWUA in 1976 to form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union . The ACWA had been active in trying to form a labor party in the 1920s, combining some elements of the Socialist Party with supporters of La Follette. Hillman used the ACWA as a base, along with the ILGWU led by David Dubinsky , in founding the American Labor Party in 1936, an ostensibly independent party that served as
4290-874: The ACWA. The AFL finally allowed the ACWA to affiliate in 1933. Hillman and the ACWA were supporters of the New Deal and Roosevelt from the outset. FDR named Hillman to the Labor Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration in 1933 and to the National Industrial Recovery Board in 1934. Hillman provided key assistance to Senator Robert F. Wagner in the drafting of the National Labor Relations Act and to Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins in winning enactment of
4400-616: The Amalgamated during the 1920s, also acquired influence within the ACW. Among his allies within the ACW were Beckerman and Philip Orlofsky, another officer in Cutters Local 4, who made sweetheart deals with manufacturers that allowed them to subcontract to cut-rate subcontractors out of town, using Buchalter's trucking companies to bring the goods back and forth. In 1931 Hillman resolved to act against Buchalter, Beckerman and Orlofsky. He began by orchestrating public demands on Jimmy Walker ,
4510-469: The American labor movement as claimed by our extreme industrialists", he declared. The issue of "syndicalism vs. socialism" was bitterly fought over the next two years, consummated by Haywood's recall from the Socialist Party's National Executive Committee (NEC) and the departure of a broad section of the left wing from the organization. The memory of this split made the intraparty battles of 1919–1921 all
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4620-430: The Assembly's five Socialist members. Sweet attacked the five, declaring they had been "elected on a platform that is absolutely inimical to the best interests of the state of New York and the United States". The Socialist Party, Sweet said, was "not truly a political party", but rather "a membership organization admitting within its ranks aliens, enemy aliens, and minors". The party had denounced America's participation in
4730-408: The Assembly, which dominated the body's activity from its opening on January 20, 1920, until its conclusion on March 11. Socialist Party leader and former 1917 New York City mayoral candidate Morris Hillquit served as chief counsel for the suspended Socialists, aided by party founder and future Socialist vice-presidential candidate Seymour Stedman . At the trial, Hillquit charged that Sweet had made
4840-548: The CIO's Department Store Workers Organizing Committee. Hillman and Lewis eventually had a falling out, with Lewis advocating a more independent tack in dealing with the federal government than Hillman. Lewis, however, gradually distanced himself from the CIO, finally resigning as its head and then withdrawing the United Mine Workers from it in 1942. Hillman remained in it, still the second most visible leader after Philip Murray , Lewis' successor. Jacob Potofsky ,
4950-459: The CPPA after the convention. Although the Socialists did not realize it at the time, the chances that the organization would ever be transformed into an authentic mass Farmer-Labor party like British Labour were greatly lessened by the FLP's departure. The Socialists remained optimistic, and the May 1923 National Convention of the Socialist Party voted after lengthy debate to retain its affiliation with
5060-472: The CPPA and to continue its work for an independent political party from within that group. The May 20 vote in favor of maintaining affiliation with the CPPA was 38–12. Failing a mass farmer-labor party from the CPPA, the Socialists sought at least a powerful presidential nominee to run in opposition to the old parties. A 3rd National Conference of the CPPA was held in St. Louis, Missouri , on February 11 and 12, 1924,
5170-537: The CPPA was held in Chicago in February 1922, attended by 124 delegates representing a broad spectrum of labor, farmer and political organizations. The gathering passed an "Address to the American People" stating its criticism of existing conditions and formally proposing an amorphous plan of action validating the status quo ante: the labor unions on the group's right wing to endorse labor-friendly candidates of
5280-548: The Communist Parties had become, included noted party journalist J. Louis Engdahl and William Kruse , head of the party's youth affiliate, the Young People's Socialist League , as well as a significant segment of the Socialist Party's Chicago organization. These left-wing dissidents continued to make themselves heard until their departure from the party after the 1921 convention. On January 7, 1920, less than
5390-407: The Democratic Party, the Socialists and Farmer-Labor Party adherents on the group's left wing to conduct their own independent campaigns. From the Socialist Party's perspective, perhaps the most important thing the CPPA did at its first National Conference was agree to meet again. The party leadership understood the process of building an independent third party that could count on the allegiance of
5500-548: The European war and had lent aid and comfort to Ludwig Martens , the "self-styled Soviet Ambassador and alien, who entered this country as a German in 1916". It had supported the revolutionaries in Germany , Austria and Hungary , Sweet continued; and consorted with international Socialist parties close to the Communist International . Sweet concluded: It is every citizen's right to his day in court. If this house should adopt
5610-534: The Farmer-Labor Party calling for "independent political action by the agricultural and industrial workers through a party of their own" defeated by a vote of 52 to 64. A majority report declaring against an independent political party was instead adopted. This defeat of the bid for an independent political party cost the CPPA one its major component organizations, with the Farmer-Labor Party delegation announcing that its group would no longer affiliate with
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#17327767469105720-494: The ILGWU in this era. The CP did not refuse to put up a fight when it broke with Hillman and the ACW leadership. The struggle was most acute in outlying areas, such as Montreal , Toronto and Rochester, where the CP and its Canadian counterpart were strongly entrenched. In New York City the fight was often physical, as Hillman brought in Abraham Beckerman, a prominent member of the Socialist Party with close ties to The Forward , to use strongarm tactics on communist opponents within
5830-419: The IWW and the radical wing of the Socialist Party to join in the founding of the Communist Third International, the Comintern . The Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party emerged as an organized faction early that year, building its organization around a lengthy Left Wing Manifesto by Louis C. Fraina . This effort to organize in order to "win the Socialist Party for the Left Wing" was staunchly resisted by
5940-428: The Left Wing language federations suspended, a big majority of the hastily elected delegates to the gathering were controlled by the Executive Secretary Adolph Germer and the Regulars. A group of Left Wingers without delegate credentials, including Reed and his sidekick Benjamin Gitlow , made an effort to occupy chairs on the convention floor before the gathering was called into order. The incumbents were unable to block
6050-411: The Left Wingers at the door, but soon called to their aid the already present police, who obligingly expelled the boisterous radicals from the hall. With the Credentials Committee firmly in the hands of the Regulars from the outset, the gathering's outcome was no longer in doubt and most of the remaining Left Wing delegates departed, to meet with other co-thinkers downstairs in a previously reserved room in
6160-581: The Louisiana party to withdraw the clause, but when the state party subsequently established segregated branches, the wider party did not object. Segregated locals could also be found in state parties in Texas and elsewhere. When Texas socialists established a Land Renters' Union in 1911, they initially banned black tenants from joining, before later setting up segregated locals for black and brown farmers. The party's membership rose by over 50,000 from 1901 to 1910. The party had 4,320 members in 1901, 20,763 in 1904, 41,751 in 1908, and 58,011 in 1910. Elsewhere,
6270-458: The NEC, while in New York and Pennsylvania the "Regular" State Executive Committees undertook reorganization of Left Wing branches and locals on a case-by-case basis. In June 1919, the Left Wing Section held a conference in New York City to discuss its organizational plans. The group found itself deeply divided, with one section, led by NEC members Alfred Wagenknecht and L. E. Katterfeld and including famed radical journalist John Reed favoring
6380-512: The Socialist Party dismissed the AFL and its craft unions as antiquated and irrelevant, instead favoring the much more radical IWW and the "syndicalist" path to socialism. In 1911, IWW leader Bill Haywood was elected to the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party, on which AFL partisan Morris Hillquit also served. The syndicalist and the electoral socialist squared off in a lively public debate in New York City's Cooper Union on January 11, 1912, with Haywood declaring that Hillquit and
6490-436: The Socialist Party had won 1,200 political offices, including U.S. representative, 32 state representatives and 79 mayors. It gained new votes in ethnic strongholds such as Milwaukee and New York from conservative German Americans who also opposed the war. From 1912 to 1938, the party ran more candidates for seats in the United States House of Representatives than any other minor party, with its height being 358 candidates in
6600-458: The Socialist Party was formed by a merger between the Social Democratic Party of America (headquartered in Chicago, IL ) and dissident Lassallean members of the Socialist Labor Party of America , who had also adopted the name Social Democratic Party of America (headquartered in Springfield, MA ). The new party chose "socialist" over "social democratic" because the latter lost its meaning when translated from German to English . From 1901 to
6710-420: The Socialist Party, which stood and stands for democratic and representative government". The legislature attempted to prevent the election and seating of Socialists in the future by passing laws designed to exclude the Socialist Party from recognition as a political party and to alter the legislature's oath-taking procedures so that elected members could be excluded before being sworn. Governor Al Smith vetoed
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#17327767469106820-470: The Socialists ought to try "a little sabotage in the right place at the proper time" and attacking Hillquit for having abandoned the class struggle by helping the New York garment workers negotiate an industrial agreement with their employers. Hillquit replied that he had no new message other than to reiterate a belief in a two-sided workers' movement, with separate and equal political and trade union arms. "A mere change of structural forms would not revolutionize
6930-406: The Textile Workers Organizing Committee, an organization founded by the CIO in 1939 as part of its effort to organize the South. The TWOC, which later renamed itself the Textile Workers Union of America, grew to as many as 100,000 members in the 1940s, but made little headway organizing in the South in the decades that followed. In 1961, the International Glove Workers' Union of America merged into
7040-414: The Textile Workers Organizing Committee, which sought to establish a new union for textile workers after the disastrous defeat of the United Textile Workers' strike in 1934. The Textile Workers Union of America, with more than 100,000 members, came out of that effort in 1939 as part of Operation Dixie . The ACWA also helped create the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers Union of America through
7150-406: The UGW leadership against the strikers by endorsing a settlement that the strikers rejected. The same split surfaced again the following year when the Forward and members of the Socialist Party who had a stake in the AFL supported the new union, but only tepidly, when it split from the UGW and the AFL. While the Forward played a direct role in the internal politics of the other major garment union,
7260-415: The UGW regularly raided it, furnishing strikebreakers and signing contracts with struck employers, in the years to come. The Amalgamated's battles with the UGW's leadership also soured the union's relations with Abraham Cahan and the Daily Forward , which Cahan edited. During the 1913 strike by the United Brotherhood of Tailors in New York City, Cahan and the United Hebrew Trades had taken sides with
7370-412: The United Garment Workers mistrusted the more militant local leadership in Chicago and in other large urban locals, which had strong Socialist loyalties. When it tried to disenfranchise those locals' members at the UGW's 1914 convention, those locals, representing two thirds of the union's membership, bolted to form the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. The AFL refused to recognize the new union and
7480-412: The Women's Committee on Political Action and sundry individuals. Very few farmers were in attendance. It was around this time that the Socialists began actively participating in discussions about democratic principles as much as Marxist ones. By 1924, they supported the Progressive Party ticket, which pushed for the reform of the Democratic Party . Ten years after that, the American Socialists adopted
7590-455: The activities of the Lusk Committee , the New York State Senate's anti-radicalism committee. He particularly challenged the presence of Assemblyman Louis A. Cuvillier , who had stated on the floor of the house the previous night words to the effect that "if the five accused Assemblymen are found guilty, they ought not to be expelled, but taken out and shot". The Assembly voted overwhelmingly for expulsion on April 1, 1920. On September 16, 1920,
7700-419: The call and declaring that the time had come "for a militant political movement independent of the two old party organizations". But La Follette declined to lead a third party, seeking to protect those progressives elected nominally as Republicans and Democrats. He said that the primary issue of the 1924 campaign was breaking the "combined power of the private monopoly system over the political and economic life of
7810-519: The competitive calculus. The ACWA tried to regulate the industry in other ways, arranging loans and conducting efficiency studies for financially troubled employers. Hillman also favored "constructive cooperation" with employers, relying on arbitration rather than strikes to resolve disputes during the life of a contract. As he explained his philosophy in 1938: The ACWA also pioneered a version of "social unionism" that offered low-cost cooperative housing and unemployment insurance to union members and founded
7920-466: The contradictions between the IWW's politics and its alliance with small contractors and the AFL eventually undercut its support among Lithuanian workers. The ACWA also benefited from the relatively pro-union stance of the federal government during World War I , during which the federal Board of Control and Labor Standards for Army Clothing enforced a policy of labor peace in return for union recognition. With
8030-547: The corrupt Tammany Hall Mayor of New York, to crack down on racketeering in the garment district, Hillman then proceeded to seize control of Local 4, expelling Beckerman and Orlofsky from the union, then taking action against corrupt union officials in Newark, New Jersey . The union then struck a number of manufacturers to bar the subcontracting of work to non-union or cut rate contractors in Pennsylvania and New Jersey . In
8140-608: The corrupt head of the Baltimore Federation of Labor , and the Industrial Workers of the World , who undermined the Amalgamated's strikes and attacked strikers. Complicating the picture further were the ethnic bonds between the many Lithuanian members of the IWW and the subcontractors whom the Amalgamated was trying to put out of business and the anarcho-syndicalist politics of many Lithuanian workers, who had developed their politics in opposition to czarist oppression in their homeland. The Amalgamated eventually prevailed, as
8250-414: The country's trade union leadership would be a protracted process and the mere fact of "agreement to disagree" but nevertheless meeting again was regarded as a step forward. The communist movement also sought to pursue the strategy of bursting from its isolation by forming a mass Farmer-Labor Party. Finally emerged from its underground existence in 1922, the Communists, through their "legal political party",
8360-406: The course of that strike the union picketed a number of trucks run by Buchalter's companies to prevent them from bringing finished goods back to New York. While the campaign cleaned up the ACW, it did not drive Buchalter out of the industry. The union may, in fact, have made a deal of some sort with Buchalter, although no evidence has ever surfaced, despite intensive efforts of political opponents of
8470-436: The earlier findings of the Judiciary Committee, were seated by votes of 87 to 48. In solidarity with their ousted colleagues, the pair refused to take their seats. After the five seats were again vacated, Hillquit expressed his disappointment at the Assembly's "unconstitutional action". But, he continued, "it will draw the issues clearer between the united Republican and Democratic parties representing arbitrary lawlessness, and
8580-520: The earliest racketeers. "Little Augie" Jacob Orgen took over the racket, providing muscle for the ILGWU in the 1926 strike. Louis "Lepke" Buchalter had Orgen assassinated in 1927 in order to take over his operations. Buchalter took an interest in the industry, acquiring ownership of a number of trucking firms and control of local unions of truckdrivers in the garment district, while acquiring an ownership interest in some garment firms and local unions. Buchalter, who had provided services for some locals of
8690-406: The exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands—the ownership and control of their livelihoods—are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease. — Helen Keller , Socialist Party of America member, 1913 In 1901,
8800-437: The labor, peace, civil rights, and civil liberties movements, fundamentally disagreed about the socialist movement 's relationship to the labor movement and the Democratic Party and about how best to advance democracy abroad. In 1970–1973, these strategic differences became so acute that the SPA changed its name to Social Democrats, USA , both because the term "party" in its name had confused the public and to distance itself from
8910-536: The legislation. In the first half of 1919, the Socialist Party had over 100,000 dues-paying members, and by the second half of 1921 it had been shattered. Fewer than 14,000 members remained in party ranks, with the departure of the large, well-funded Finnish Socialist Federation adding to the malaise. In September 1921, the NEC determined that the time had come to end the party's historic aversion to fusion with other political organizations and issue an appeal declaring that
9020-467: The more bitter. The party's opposition to World War I caused a sharp decline in membership. It suffered from the Postmaster General 's decision to refuse to allow the delivery of party newspapers and periodicals via the U.S. mail, severely disrupting the party's activity, particularly in rural areas. Radicals moved further left into the IWW or the Communist Party USA . Members who supported
9130-501: The onset of World War I , the Socialist Party had numerous elected officials throughout the United States. There were two Socialist members of Congress, Meyer London of New York City and Victor Berger of Milwaukee (a part of the sewer socialism movement, a major front in socialism, Milwaukee being the first and the only major city to elect a socialist mayor, which it did four times between 1910 and 1956); over 70 mayors ; and many state legislators and city councilors. The party
9240-470: The pamphlets and books that were sold at party meetings. Approaches to agriculture and farmers' interests were subject to significant debate in the party. While members in most parts of the country advocated collective farming , the Texas and Oklahoma state parties supported populist policies based on small-scale farm ownership, which socialists elsewhere considered economically backward. The populist position
9350-408: The party adopted a program of reforms including state-backed agricultural cooperatives , socialization of transport, storage and processing facilities, progressive land taxes, and government-supported land leases for small farmers. Positions in the party on racial segregation varied and were the subject of heated debate from its foundation to the 1919 split. At its founding convention, a resolution
9460-487: The party also elected two U.S. representatives ( Victor L. Berger and Meyer London ), dozens of state legislators, more than 100 mayors, and countless lesser officials. The party's staunch opposition to American involvement in World War I , although welcomed by many, also led to prominent defections, official repression, and vigilante persecution. The party was further shattered by a factional war over how to respond to
9570-605: The party who sought to organize white, black and indigenous workers across color lines through their party or labor movement work included Ameringer, Covington Hall , and Otto Branstetter . More widely, anti-racist socialists were spurred to action by the Springfield race riot of 1908 . Socialist writer William English Walling 's reporting on the riot inspired another socialist, Mary White Ovington , among others, to work with prominent black leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois , Ida B. Wells , and Mary Church Terrell to establish
9680-416: The resolution enshrined a commitment to opposing racism, sections of the party continued to argue against that. For example, Victor Berger drew on scientific racism to claim that blacks and mulattoes "constitute[d] a lower race". They were opposed by others who defended the spirit of the resolution, most notably Debs. This spread of opinion was reflected in the drawing up of constitutions by state parties in
9790-507: The revolt of the urban locals against the conservative AFL affiliate the United Garment Workers . The roots of this conflict date to the 1910 Chicago garment workers' strike , when a spontaneous strike by a handful of women workers led to a citywide strike of 41,000 garment workers. The bitter strike pitted the strikers against not only their employers and the local authorities, but also their own union. The leadership of
9900-523: The state's 1910 ballot initiative on a grandfather clause to prevent blacks from voting . Prominent party member Oscar Ameringer wrote the ballot argument against it, and the party launched an unsuccessful lawsuit to prevent the question from going to the ballot. Party propaganda argued that if working-class solidarity did not extend across racial lines, then the ruling class would exploit blacks as strikebreakers and an instrument of repression. The state party's 1912 platform stated: "safety and advancement of
10010-400: The support of key progressives, such as Walter Lippman , Felix Frankfurter , and Charles Rosen the union was able to obtain government support in organizing outposts such as Rochester, New York as part of an experiment in industrial democracy . That experiment ended in 1919, when employers in nearly every industry with a history of unionism went on the offensive. The ACWA not only survived
10120-416: The third, William Costley, held that blacks were in "a distinct and peculiar position in contradiction to other laboring elements in the United States". Costley introduced his own resolution, which also condemned the campaign of "lynching, burning and disenfranchisement" that black Americans suffered. His resolution passed, albeit with the language on "lynching, burning, and disenfranchisement" removed. While
10230-480: The two organizations shared a vision of a party akin to the British Labour Party in which constituent political groups jointly participated while retaining their independent existence. The fissure between the organizations thus widened. As with the first conference, the 2nd Conference of the CPPA split over the all-important issue of an independent political party, with a proposal by five delegates of
10340-599: The union, such as Thomas Dewey and Westbrook Pegler , to find it. Buchalter claimed, before his execution in 1944, that he had never dealt with either Hillman or Dubinsky, head of the ILGWU. The Great Depression reduced the Amalgamated's membership to one third or less of its former strength. Like many other unions, the ACWA revived with the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act , whose promise of legal protection for workers' right to organize brought thousands of garment workers back to
10450-721: The union. By the end of the decade, the CP was no longer a significant force in the union. While battling the CP, Hillman turned a blind eye to the infiltration of gangsters within the union. The garment industry had been riddled for decades with small-time gangsters, who ran protection and loansharking rackets while offering muscle in labor disputes. First hired to strongarm strikers, some went to work for unions, who used them first for self-defense, then to intimidate strikebreakers and recalcitrant employers. ILG locals used "Dopey" Benny Fein , who refused on principle to work for employers. Internecine warfare between labor sluggers eliminated many of
10560-550: The war effort quit, ranging from the rank and file to prominent intellectuals such as Walter Lippmann , John Spargo , James Graham Phelps Stokes and William English Walling . Some briefly formed the National Party in an unrealized hope of merging with the remnants of Theodore Roosevelt 's Progressive Party and the Prohibition Party . Official membership fell from 83,284 in 1916 to 74,519 in 1918. By 1918,
10670-475: The working class depends upon its solidarity and class consciousness. Those who would engender or foster race hatred or animosity between the white and black sections of the working class are the enemies of both." This stance earned the party support from key black leaders in the state. In the Southwest , the non-racial United Mine Workers aided black recruitment into the party. Notable figures associated with
10780-639: Was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America who had split from the main organization in 1899. In the first decades of the 20th century, the SPA drew significant support from many different groups, including trade unionists , progressive social reformers, populist farmers and immigrants . Eugene V. Debs twice won over 900,000 votes in presidential elections ( 1912 and 1920 ), while
10890-454: Was a power in its own right. As a result, a handful of outside publishers dominated the published messages the party distributed and agitated for a much more radical anti-capitalist revolutionary message than the party itself tolerated. The Appeal to Reason newspaper thus became part of its radical left wing as did the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company of Chicago, which produced over half of
11000-458: Was able to successfully run candidates in smaller municipalities as well as big cities, winning the mayoralty of Butte, Montana , with Lewis Duncan and that of Schenectady, New York , with George R. Lunn . Its voting strength was greatest among recent Jewish, Finnish and German immigrants, coal miners and former populist farmers in the Midwest. According to Jimmy Weinstein , its electoral base
11110-587: Was backed by Algie Martin Simons , who argued that small farmers were not being eradicated under capitalist pressure as many socialists believed, but that they were "a permanent factor in the agricultural life in America" and that socialist and labor movements needed to attract their support to advance working-class interests. After disappointing performances in the 1908 elections when it ran on an under-developed agrarian platform based on land collectivization, in 1912
11220-567: Was being challenged both by the Forward on the right and by Lithuanian and Italian syndicalists and Jewish anarchists within the union on the left—those relations cooled in 1924 when the CP withdrew its support for the Farmer-Labor Party created to support La Follette's candidacy for President . From that point forward Hillman battled the CP activists within his union, but without the massive internecine strife that nearly tore apart
11330-596: Was involved with the settlement negotiations. The action not only pitted workers against management and against Chicago police on horseback, it also exposed divisions in the union—namely that the organization did not support its unskilled members. Similar allegations dogged the UGA's mishandling of the 1913 New York Garment Workers Strike, a nine-week walkout of some 85,000 workers. Later UGW strikes included one in February, 1913, in Rochester, New York , where striker Ida Braiman
11440-511: Was joined by important Left Wingers C. E. Ruthenberg and Louis Fraina, a depletion of Left Wing forces that made the result of the 1919 Socialist Convention a foregone conclusion. Regardless, Wagenknecht's and Reed's plans to fight it out at the 1919 Emergency National Convention continued apace. With the most radical state organizations effectively purged by the Regulars (Massachusetts, Minnesota) or unable to participate (Ohio, Michigan) and
11550-568: Was killed and others wounded by gunfire. During a subsequent strike in Chicago in October 1915, striker Edward Kapper was killed in a riot on October 26, and 10-year-old bystander Leo Schroeder was crushed by a mob on the 29th. Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America ( ACWA ) was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found
11660-445: Was originally intended to be an umbrella organization bringing together various elements of the farmer and labor movement together in a common program. Invitations to the group's founding conference were issued to members of a wide variety of "progressive" organizations of widely varied perspectives. As a result, from its inception the heterogeneous body was unable to agree on a program or a declaration of principles, let alone congeal into
11770-446: Was presented in favor of "equal rights for all human beings without distinction of color, race or sex", specifically highlighting African Americans as particularly oppressed and exploited and calling for them to be organized by the socialist and labor movements. This was opposed by a number of white delegates, who argued that specific appeals to black workers were unnecessary. Two of the black delegates present agreed with this position, but
11880-466: Was seen as an attempt to propose a political reform that would ultimately result in a better social and economic reform consistent with their beliefs. The National Committee had previously requested that Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette run for president. The Cleveland Convention was addressed by La Follette's son, Robert M. La Follette Jr. , who read a message from his father accepting
11990-684: Was strongest west of the Mississippi River , "in the states where mining, lumbering, and tenant farming prevailed". It was also able to attract support from railroad workers. Its vote shares were highest in Oklahoma , Nevada , Montana , Washington , California , Idaho , Florida , Arizona and Wisconsin , and it also attracted support in Texas , Arkansas and Kansas . From 1900 (before its formal union) to 1912, it ran Eugene V. Debs for president at each election. The best showing ever for
12100-439: Was weakened by the popularity of President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's New Deal , the organization and flexibility of the Communist Party under Earl Browder and the resurgent labor movement 's desire to support sympathetic Democratic Party politicians. A divisive and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to broaden the party by admitting followers of Leon Trotsky and Jay Lovestone caused the traditional Old Guard to leave and form
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