History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Postwar Struggles 1918 -1920 volume 8

317 Pages·1987·11.185 MB·English

by  Philip S. Foner

HISTORY OF
THE LABOR MOVEMENT
IN THE UNITED STATES
VOLUME VIII: Postwar Struggles,
1918-1920
BY PHILIP S. FONER
@
INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS, New York
© 1988 International Publishers Co., Inc.
First printing, 1988
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
(Revised for vol. 8)
Foner, Philip Sheldon, 1910-
History of the labor movement in the United States.
(New World paperbacks)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: —v. 2. From the founding of the American Federation of Labor to the
emergence of American imperialism. —v. 5. The AFL in the progressive em, 1910-
1915. -v. 8. Postwar struggles, 1919-1921.
1. Trade-unions—United States—History. 2. Labor and laboring classes-United
States—History. I. Title. II. Series.
HD6508.F57 1975 331.88’0973 75-315606
ISBN 0-7178-0092-X
ISBN 0-7178-0388-0 (pbk.)
iv
CONTENTS
PREFACE xi
. THE SETTING I: The Struggle for Control 1
Causes of Labor Unrest, 1 . . . Promise and Reality, 3 . . . The Industrial
Conference, 6 . . . Status of Women Workers, 10 . . . The New Union-
ists, 12 . . . The Plumb Plan, 16.
. THE SETTING ll: Red Scare and Red Summer 20
Hysteria, 21 . . . “Deportation Deliriums,” 24 . . . Palmer Raids. 25 . . .
Berger, Congress and the Red Scare, 29 . . . Sacco and Vanzetti, 31 . . .
Unions and the Red Scare, 33 . . . “Red Summer,” 35 . . . The Elaine
Massacre, 37 . . . Black Resistance, 41.
. THE U.S. LABOR MOVEMENT AND
THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION 42
The February Revolution, 43 . . . Triumph of the Bolsheviks, 45 . . .
U.S. Intervention in Russia, 46 . . . The AFL and the New Soviet
Regime, 49 . . . The ILGWU and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, 53
. . . The Seattle Labor Council, 55 . . . “Hands Off Russia,” 58 . . .
American Labor Alliance, 60.
. GENERAL STRIKE: Seattle and Winnipeg 63
Seattle Shipyards’ Strike, 63 . . . Steps Leading to a General Strike, 68
. . . The General Strike, 71 . . . End of the Strike, 75 . . . Background of
the Winnipeg General Strike, 79 . . . The Strike Begins, 82 . . . “Bloody
Saturday,” 84 . . . End of the Strike, 85 . . .
. THE BOSTON TELEPHONE AND POLICE STRIKES 88
Grievances of the Telephone Operators, 88 . . . The Telephone Strike, 89
. . . End of the Strike, 91 . . . Background of the Boston Police Strike, 92
. . . Boston Policemen’s Union, 93 . . . The Strike Begins, 95 . . . “A
City in Terror,” 95 . . . Role of Central Labor Union, 98 . . . End of
Boston Police Strike, 100.
. STREETCAR STRIKES 102
Chicago and Denver, 104 . . . Knoxville, 106 . . . Kansas City, 108.
. STRIKES OF CLOTHING AND TEXTILE WORKERS 117
Men’s Clothing Workers, 118 . . . The Ladies‘ Garment Workers, 120
. . . The Textile Workers, 123 . . . The Amalgamated TWU and the
Lawrence Strike, 126 . . . The Amalgamated Textile Workers of America,
137 . . .
. STRIKES of COAL MINERS and STEEL WORKERS 141
Background of the Miners’ Strike, 141 . . . Role of the Federal Govern-
ment, 144 . . . Anti-Strike Injunction, 145 . . . Lewis Calls Off the
Strike, 146 . . . Background of the Steel Strike, 148 . . . Role of Foster
and Fitzpatrick, 151 . . . A National Committee, 152 . . . The Steel
Organizing Drive, 153 . . . Fruitless Negotiations, 157 . . . The Steel
Strike Begins, 159 . . . A Vicious Anti-Strike Offensive, 160 . . . The
Strike in Gary, 162 . . . End of the Steel Strike, 166 . . . Foster Evaluates
the Steel Strike, 167 . . .
. THE OPEN SHOP DRIVE, 1919-1920 170
Open Shop Associations, 170 . . . The “American Plan,” 172 .. Open
Shop Propaganda, 173 . . . Open Shop Practices, 174 . . . The National
Federation of Open Shop Associations, 176 . . . The Real Objective, 178
. . . The Struggle in Tampa, 179 . . . Results of the Open Shop Drive,
183.
vi
10. STRIKES AND BLACK-WHITE RELATIONSHIPS 185
The Stockyards Labor Council Campaign, 186 . . . The Chicago Race
Riot, 188 . . : Organizing Efforts Continue, 191 . . . Black Labor and
Unions, 193 . . . Bogalusa Solidarity, 194.
11. The AFL and the BLACK WORKER, 1919-1920 197
The Messenger, NBA. and the [WW 197 . . . The 1919 AFL Conven-
tion, 198 . . . A New Era for the Black Worker? 201 . . . The 1920
AFL Convention, 203 . . . Another New Era for the Black Worker?
206.
12. THE IWW in the POSTWAR PERIOD 208
The Sacramento Trial, 208 . . . The Wichita Trial, 211 . . . Centralia,
214 . . . The Trial, 221 . . . The Aftermath, 224 . . . Internal Dissen-
sion in the IWW, 225 . . . “ Big Bill” Haywood, 227 , . . Political Pris-
oners, 228 . . . The IWW and the International Communist Movement,
231 . . .
13. THE SPLIT IN THE SOCIALIST PARTY and the
FORMATION of the COMMUNIST PARTY 237
Nature and Ideology of the Left Wing, 237 . . . Victory of the Left
Wing, 241 . . . The Purge, 241 . . . The Left-Wing Conference, 243
. . . The Purge Continues, 245 . . . The Chicago Socialist Party Cone
vention, 246 . . . The C.L.P. and the CR, 248 . . . Communist Parties
Forced Underground, 252 . . . A Unified Communist Party, 252 . . .
14. POLITICAL ACTION, 1918-1920 256
Forces for Independent Political Action, 257 . . . The Chicago Program,
259 . . . The Cook County Labor Party, 260 . . . The American Labor
Party, 262 . . . The Committee of Forty-Eight, 263 . . . The Non-parti-
san League, 263 . . . A National labor Party, 264 . . . The Farmer-
Labor Party, 267 . . . Gompers and the Labor Party Movement, 270 . . .
The Railroad Brotherhoods, 271 . . . The AFL, the RR Brotherhoods
and the 1920 Election, 272 . . .
REFERENCE NOTES 275
INDEX 297
vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As in the case of previous volumes, this work could not have been completed
without the generous assistance of numerous libraries and historical societies. I
am again indebted to Dorothy Swanson and her staff at the Tamiment Institute,
Elmer Bobst Library, New York University, for kind assistance and cooperation.
I also again wish to thank the staff of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin
for assistance in the use of the Archives of the American Federation of Labor. I
also wish to thank the staffs of the Library of Congress, National Archives, New
York Public Library, US. Department of Labor, Bancroft Library, University of
California, Berkeley, the interlibrary loan department of the University of Penn-
sylvania; and the libraries of New York University, Duke University, Columbia
University, University of Wisconsin, Catholic University of America, Cornell
University, University of Virginia, Swarthmore College, Temple University,
Haverford College, University of Pennsylvania, University of Maine, Far-
mington; University of Chicago, Washington University, St. Louis; University of
Washington, Seattle; University of Florida, Northwestern University, University
of New Mexico, Wayne State University, University of Oklahoma; and Lincoln
University, Pennsylvania. Finally, I wish to thank my brother Henry Foner, who
read the entire manuscript, helped prepare it for publication, and made valuable
suggestions, and Jules Chazin of Madison, Wisconsin, who helped in obtaining
material from the University of Wisconsin and the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin.
Philip S. Foner
Professor Emeritus of History,
Lincoln University, Pennsylvania
ix

,. PREFACE
This is the eighth volume of my History of the labor Movement in the United
States. The seventh volume of the series dealt with the position of the Socialist
Party of America and organized labor, especially the American Federation of
Labor (AFL), the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and the Railroad
Brotherhoods toward the outbreak of World War I in Europe in August 1914. It
carried the story to America’s entrance into the war in April 1917, the experi-
ences of organized labor and the Socialist Party during the war, and closed with
the situation of the labor movement at the armistice in November 1918.
Volume 8 concentrates on the postwar years, 1918-1920, a period of unprece-
dented labor struggles and political developments. It was my original intention to
include a discussion of the role of the labor unions and the Socialist Party
towards Latin America, culminating in the formation of the Pan-American Feder-
ation of Labor in 1919. However, this discussion is included in a separate volume
of mine, U. S. Labor Movement and Latin America, volume I, 1846-1919, pub-
lished by Bergin and Garvey.
In 1928, the labor writer J .B.S. Hardman looked back at the strike wave of
1919 and observed: “The language that was used then no longer sounds familiar
to our ears. The emotions that overwhelmed people in those momentous days fail
to excite us today.”* It would take less than a decade for another great wave to
make Hardman’s observation dated. It is true, however, as we shall see in the
present volume, that rarely has labor in the United States exploded with such
fury as in the aftermath of the Great War. In 1919 American workers staged an
unprecedented series of uprisings which, if only temporarily, vigorously chal-
lenged employers’ control of the workplace. During 1919 labor unrest swept
across the United States as four million workers walked off the job in order to
consolidate wartime victories and win new gains. The “strike craze” affected
more workers than during any previous period in American history. The scale
and intensity of the labor struggles reflected not only the wartime growth of
xi
union strength, but also the determination of employers to wipe out labor’s war-
time gains and to set the pattern for postwar relations on an entirely different
basis than they nad been often forced to adopt during the war years. In this
determination, they were most often fully supported by the authorities—national,
state and municipal/and a media which most often backed the industrialists and
joined them in disseminating anti-Bolshevik propaganda that denied the legiti-
macy of labor’s protests.
Historians such as David Brody, Amon Gutfield, and Melvyn Dubofsky have
argued that the combined power of the state and of the corporations was suffic-
ient in itself to defeat many of the efforts of labor to hold its own and to advance
in the postwar period.** But as the present volume demonstrates, there were
important exceptions which proved that given the correct structure, a militant
rank-and-file and leadership, and labor unity, the unions were able to overcome
these obstacles and triumph. While not in any sense negating the role played by
the state in aiding monopoly capitalism to defeat organized labor, this volume
demonstrates that the recent tendency of labor historians to regard any workers’
struggles in an environment of conservative political domination to be doomed, is
both too negative and cynical.
*J.B.S. Hardman, American Labor Dynamics in the Light of Post-Wu Developments, New York. 1928.
p. 10; reprinted, New York, 1968.
MDavid Brody, Labor in Crisis—The Steel Strike. New York. 1965; Arnon Gutfield. Montana's
Agony—Rams of ”hr and Hysteria. 1917-1921. Gainesville. Fla.. 1979; Melvyn Dubofsky. “Abortive
Reforénz. The V‘V‘ilszn :dministration and Organized Labor. 1913-1920." in James E. Cronin and Car-
1m9e2n5 , Pmhainlandie, lphoira ,, 1 9o8m3m.u nir)' and Power: The EXenP'e nce 0 f Lab or m' Europe and Who'a, 1900
xii