American Federation of Labor

The American Federation of Labor, founded in 1886, was one of the first federations of labour unions in the United States. In 1955, it merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations to form the AFL-CIO.

First World War

The AFL was a close supporter of Woodrow Wilson's drive for intervention in the First World War. In October 1916, its leader Samuel Gompers was appointed to the Advsory Commission of the Council of National Defence. In a speech to the AFL's 1917 convention, Wilson invited its leaders to serve on the National Labor Conference and later on the National War Labor Board.

At a 1917 meeting of the AFL Executive Council, Gompers rebuffed a delegation of black trade unionists for "somehow conveying the idea that they are to be petted or coddled and given special consideration and special privilege. Of course that can't be done."

New Deal

The AFL's David Dubinsky was appointed treasurer of the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) at its foundation on 25 February 1934. The JLC president, B.C. Vladeck gave a stirring anti-Nazi speech at the 1934 AFL's convention of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which created a Labor Chest to aid the victims of fascism.

According to Roy Godson, the AFL's position partly reflected its anticommunism:

Before America became involved in World War II, David Dubinsky and Matthew Woll had feared that if the democratic leadership of Eastern and Western Europe were destroyed by the Nazis, the Russians and the well-organized Communist underground might emerge from the ensuing political vacuum as the new rulers of the continent. With this in mind, Woll and Dubinsky enlisted the support of the AFL's president William Green and its secretary-treasurer George Meany in the Jewish Labor Committee's effort to rescue hundreds of democratic labor leaders, politicians, and intellectuals from the Nazis.

Although the AFL opposed anti-Semitism, the AFL nevertheless rejected non-quota status for Jewish refugees from Europe. This reflected a nativist 'craft union' tradition which favoured the organisation of skilled workers from older ethnic groups.

A challenge to the AFL's position came from the 1935 formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which organised many workers of southern and eastern European origin, and which was more favourable to immigration.

The AFL lost ground to the more militant CIO in the mid-1930s, but its position recovered with the recession of 1937.

In 1938, AFL President William Green became president of the newly founded Labor League for Human Rights. He nevertheless restated AFL opposition to nonquota refugee admissions. Instead, the AFL supported a Jewish homeland in Palestine. In 1939, the AFl opposed the Wagner-Rogers Bill proposing nonquoa status for German refugees.

The overall result of the New Deal period was to see both the AFL and CIO involved in a corporatist compromise that offered workers higher wages in return for improved productivity. Both movements would take part in the internationalisation of this American model of labour relations after the War.

World War Two

Matthew Woll announced the formation of the Labor Committee for Human Rights]] on 27 December 1940, at a luncheon for TUC General Secretary Sir Walter Citrine in New York.

The AFL rejected the TUC's December 1943 proposal for a worldwide congress of trade unions including those from the Soviet Union.

The Cold War

In 1949, the CIO withdrew from the World Confederation of Free Trade Unions and joined with the AFL to establish the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.

People

• Samuel Gompers President 1886-1924
• William Green President 1924-1952
• George Meany President 1952-1955, President of the merged AFL-CIO 1955-1979
• Matthew Woll
• Jay Lovestone

External Resources

• http://www.aflcio.org Homepage of the merged AFL-CIO
• AFL-CIO's Dark Past: A 6-Part Series by Harry Kelber, The Labor Educator, November - December 2004.
• Damon W. Root, Divide and Conquer: The American Federation of Labor's shameful record on race, Reason.com, 13 March 2009.

Labor History Timeline, AFL-CIO, accessed 29 April 2010.

Kees van der Pjil, The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class, Verso, 1984, p.59.

Kees van der Pjil, The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class, Verso, 1984, p.60.

Guide to the Records of the Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.), Part I, Holocaust Era Files WAG 025.1, The Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University Digital Library, accessed 30 April 2010.

Godson, Roy(1975) 'The AFL foreign policy making process from the end of World War II to the merger', Labor History, 16: 3, 326 — 327.

Daniel J. Tichenor, Dividing lines: the politics of immigration control in America, Princeton University Press, 2002, p.163.

Daniel J. Tichenor, Dividing lines: the politics of immigration control in America, Princeton University Press, 2002, p.163.

Kees van der Pjil, The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class, Verso, 1984, p.96.

Daniel J. Tichenor, Dividing lines: the politics of immigration control in America, Princeton University Press, 2002, p.163.

Daniel J. Tichenor, Dividing lines: the politics of immigration control in America, Princeton University Press, 2002, p.164.

Kees van der Pjil, The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class, Verso, 1984, p.136.

Labor Will Give Aid to Britain, San Jose News, 27 December 1940.

Kees van der Pjil, The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class, Verso, 1984, p.59.

Kees van der Pjil, The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class, Verso, 1984, p.150.