Page:William Z. Foster, James P. Cannon and Earl Browder - Trade Unions in America.djvu/4

 newspaper, the Jewish They are of the usual Amsterdam type except that the officials of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers (men's clothing), for a time showed strong left tendencies which they are now abandoning. Except for these unions and an occasional local union or small national organization, few of the unions are even mildly socialistic. In the early days of the movement, being founded by radicals, many had <a revolutionary tinge. Likewise up until just before the war, when the socialist party was strong and vigorous, many unions were under the influence of the socialists including such important organizations as the coal miners, painters, metal miners, etc. But since then these unions have all gone over to Gompers' camp, even as the whole socialist party has practically done, so far as its labor union policies are concerned. At this time the socialists who formerly controlled one-third of the votes in the A. F. of L., have no nuclei in the trade unions, nor are they carrying on any war against the old bureaucracy

Those unions that are definitely Communist (apart from the Communist-led minorities in the lareglarge [sic] unions), are few in number, totalling at most 40,000 members. They are independent of the A. F. of L. and center chiefly around the United Labor Council of America, with headquarters in New York. The principal organization in this group is the Amalgamated Food Workers, with about 15,000 members. A couple of the many independent unions of shoe workers show Communist tendencies. The Communist movement follows the policy of organizing nuclei within the mass trade unions. Its expression is the Trade Union Educational League, which is described in another pamphlet of this series, and which has a large following in all the mass organizations.

The syndicalist union is the Industrial Workers of the World (I. W. W.). This organization, founded in 1905, has had a stormy history. It now has about 35,000 members. It follows a policy of dual or rival unionism, paralleling the old organizations wherever it can. It is