International Workers Order
Encyclopedia
The International Workers Order (IWO) was a Communist Party-affiliated insurance
, mutual benefit
and fraternal organization
founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954 as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951. At its height in the years immediately following World War II
, the IWO had almost 200,000 members and provided low-cost health
and life insurance
, medical
and dental
clinics, and supported foreign-language newspaper
s, cultural
and education
al activities. The organization also operated a summer camp and cemeteries for its members.
, a Jewish mutual benefit society of social democratic
coloration. Principle functions of the Workmen's Circle included the provision of unemployment insurance, medical insurance, and life insurance
for its members, as well as providing a setting for the discussion of social problems at its meetings. During the factionally charged political climate of the American Left
in the 1920s, a parallel Communist fraternal benefit society emerged — the IWO.
The origins of the split that established the IWO date back to 1922. In February of that year, a nominating conference of the Arbeter Ring was held, at which a new Executive Committee was to be nominated. Nearly 200 delegates attended this conference, which was dominated by adherents of the Socialist Party of America
(SPA), who prevented adherents of the communist movement from gaining a single seat on the Credentials Committee. A spontaneous walkout of Left Wing delegates resulted.
In May 1922 the Workmen's Circle held its 22nd Convention at Toronto. This gathering was attended by 26 Left Wing delegates out of a total of 138. These two fractions battled over two resolutions of the Executive Committee: one against Soviet Russia for its judicial action against the Socialist Revolutionaries and other political opponents of the regime, and a second directed against the Workers Party of America and its Yiddish language organ, the Morgen Freiheit
(Morning Freedom). While the SPA-influenced delegates held the day, a "Protest Convention" quickly organized in response to the resolutions of the 22nd Convention. This was held on June 2, 1922, and attended by 338 delegates, representing 235 branches of the organization from 23 states.
The National Executive Committee of the Workmen's Circle struck back, dissolving the Left Wing-dominated Boston District Committee and removing several Left Wingers from positions of authority in the organization. The Left Wing found itself in a majority position in Minnesota
, Missouri
, Virginia
, Texas
, and Ontario
, inspiring the National Executive Committee to dissolve the five state organizations, as well as various Left Wing branches. Despite the rough treatment, the Left Wing resisted splitting the organization, instead opting to continue its fight within the Workman's Circle organization itself. This tactic was followed through 1925.
The 1925 Convention of the Arbeter Ring was particularly bitter. Nearly 1,000 delegates were in attendance, of whom approximated one-fourth supported a program of the Left Wing calling for the Workmen's Circle to become an actively political organization. The Left Wing fought relentlessly to win the right to read a 10 minute statement to the convention, declaring that "to our shame, the Workmen's Circle, our Order, lately has become and out-and-out toll and weapon in the hands of the reactionary element in the Jewish working class movement." A two-day "National Protest Conference" was held in response to the Socialist-dominated convention, which was attended by the representatives of 191 branches. The conference organized itself into a "Left Wing Alliance" and declared that it would fight "against the terror of the Right Wing machine" and "for the non-party [i.e. non-Socialist Party] character of the Workmen's Circle." Aid to the children's school movement, a pet project of the Left, was pledged.
The National Executive Committee of the Workmen's Circle responded to the organization of the Left Wing Alliance predictably, expelling 64 branches with a membership of close to 15,000. This put the Executive Committee of the Alliance in a precarious situation. Rather than risk "suicide" through a premature split, the Executive Committee instructed its branches to comply with various requests of the NEC to resign from the Alliance or be expelled. A split was thereby narrowly averted. The NEC adopted a lengthy process for reinstatement of expelled branches, drawing out the process over months and demoralizing the Left Wing.
As the Communist movement became more radical at the end of the 1920s, following the doctrine of the so-called Third Period
of new revolutionary upheaval, the bad marriage of Socialists and Communists in the Arbeter Ring crashed upon the rocks. The 1929 Convention attempted to eliminate the Left Wing from participation. The gathering was addressed by a guest speaker, Victor Chernov, leader of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR), considered a notorious counterrevolutionary by the Communists of the day. In the supercharged environment, it was charged that a physical attack was made on the reporter of the Communist Party's Yiddish daily, the Freiheit. The convention renewed the two controversial Toronto resolutions of 1922 and formally approved the action of the NEC in suppressing the Left Wing movement in the Workmen's Circle.
A split was at hand. On October 11, 1929, a three day "National Conference of Minority Groups of the Workmen's Circle" gathered in New York City, attended by 193 delegates, representing 108 branches and 23 minority factions of branches. These delegates unanimously decided to leave the Workmen's Circle and build a new explicitly working class order. A manifesto issued by the conference declared:
The IWO described itself in the following manner in its "Declaration of Principles":
The IWO provided very low cost term life insurance, coverage which could be supplemented with additional protection against sickness. The Order did not employ sales representatives and paid no commissions on policies sold. For many, the IWO took over the social functions associated with the Communist Party's language federations, which had lessened in importance throughout the decade of the 1920s. Different national sections of the IWO published news in their own languages, organized singing societies, sports teams, marching bands, dance companies, and theater groups.
The IWO grew rapidly, from a tiny organization of 3,000 to 5,000 members at the time of formation in 1930, the organization rocketed to a membership of 67,000 by 1935. By 1938 it had grown to over 141,000. Members who recruited new members to the IWO were known in organizational parlance as "builders."
While the IWO aggressively promoted the Communist Party's program and policies to its members, one scholarly observer has concluded that
As World War II
approached, membership in the IWO continued to climb. At the end of September 1941, the organization claimed a membership of 155,000 and assets approaching $1.9 million. According to the testimony of the IWO's General Secretary, Max Bedacht
, these members were organized into over 19,000 branches and generated an income for the organization of over $1 million per year.
, the IWO had almost 200,000 members and provided low-cost health
and life insurance
, medical
and dental
clinics, and supported foreign-language newspaper
s, cultural
and education
al activities. The IWO offered insurance to all working people at the same rate regardless of race or occupation and was, at the time, the only service provider where African Americans could obtain insurance at the same rate as others and also the only place where workers in dangerous occupations such as coal mining could obtain insurance at a rate equivalent to other occupations.
The IWO also ran a Jewish summer camp, Camp Kinderland
and the racially integrated camp Wo-Chi-Ca. Additionally the IWO owned and operated cemeteries throughout the US and Canada, a common practice among left wing Jewish
mutual-aid organizations like the Farband
and the Workmen's Circle.
While the leadership of IWO sections were members of the Communist Party most of the IWO's rank-and-file members were not party members.
The IWO was made up of a total of 15 sections, the largest section of which was the Jewish section representing one-third of the membership of the IWO and which in 1944 was renamed the Jewish People's Fraternal Order. There was also an English section and 13 other language sections including the Hungarian Workmen's Sick, Benevolent, and Educational Federation; the Ukrainian-American Fraternal Union; the Carpatho-Russian National Society; the (Spanish) Cervantes Society Mutualista Obrera Puertorriqueña; the (Italian) Garibaldi American Fraternal Society; the Hellenic-American Brotherhood; the Serbian-American Federation; the Russian American Mutual Aid Society; the Slovak Workers Society; the Polonia Society; the Rumanian American Fraternal Society; the Czech Workers Society and the Finnish American Mutual Aid Society (descended from the Finnish Socialist Federation
).
As a financial support mechanism of the Communist Party, the IWO came under concerted government attack during the Cold War
which erupted following the termination of World War II. The U.S. Attorney General placed the IWO on its list of subversive organizations in 1947. Though financially solvent and conservatively managed, the New York
State Insurance Department contended that, since the IWO was engaged in political
activity, which was prohibited to insurance organizations, it placed its members' interests in jeopardy, leading ultimately to its liquidation in 1954.
Following the demise of the IWO, Camp Kinderland became an independent entity and the Jewish People's Fraternal Order reconstituted itself as the Jewish Cultural Clubs and Societies without the mutual benefit component of JPFO. A Canadian equivalent of the JPFO, the United Jewish People's Order, still exists as does the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians
.
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
, mutual benefit
Benefit society
A benefit society or mutual aid society is an organization or voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit or insurance for relief from sundry difficulties...
and fraternal organization
Fraternal and service organizations
A "fraternal organization" or "fraternity" is a brotherhood, though the term usually connotes a distinct or formal organization. Please list college fraternities and sororities at List of social fraternities and sororities.-International:...
founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954 as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951. At its height in the years immediately following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the IWO had almost 200,000 members and provided low-cost health
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
and life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
, medical
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and dental
Dentistry
Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...
clinics, and supported foreign-language newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s, cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
al activities. The organization also operated a summer camp and cemeteries for its members.
Factional war in the Arbeter Ring (1920s)
The International Workers Order began as the byproduct of a split of the The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter RingThe Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring
The Workmen’s Circle or Arbeter Ring is a Yiddish language-oriented American Jewish fraternal organization committed to Social Justice, Jewish Community, and Ashkenazic Culture...
, a Jewish mutual benefit society of social democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
coloration. Principle functions of the Workmen's Circle included the provision of unemployment insurance, medical insurance, and life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
for its members, as well as providing a setting for the discussion of social problems at its meetings. During the factionally charged political climate of the American Left
American Left
The American Left consists of individuals and groups, including socialists, communists and anarchists, that have sought fundamental change in the economic, political and cultural institutions of the United States. Although left-wing ideologies came to the United States in the 19th century, there...
in the 1920s, a parallel Communist fraternal benefit society emerged — the IWO.
The origins of the split that established the IWO date back to 1922. In February of that year, a nominating conference of the Arbeter Ring was held, at which a new Executive Committee was to be nominated. Nearly 200 delegates attended this conference, which was dominated by adherents of the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-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 which had split from the main organization...
(SPA), who prevented adherents of the communist movement from gaining a single seat on the Credentials Committee. A spontaneous walkout of Left Wing delegates resulted.
In May 1922 the Workmen's Circle held its 22nd Convention at Toronto. This gathering was attended by 26 Left Wing delegates out of a total of 138. These two fractions battled over two resolutions of the Executive Committee: one against Soviet Russia for its judicial action against the Socialist Revolutionaries and other political opponents of the regime, and a second directed against the Workers Party of America and its Yiddish language organ, the Morgen Freiheit
Morgen Freiheit
The New York city-based Morgen Freiheit was a daily Yiddish language newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party, USA, founded by Moissaye Olgin in 1922. After the end of World War II the paper's editors developed criticisms of the Soviet Union and thereby clashed with the leaders of the...
(Morning Freedom). While the SPA-influenced delegates held the day, a "Protest Convention" quickly organized in response to the resolutions of the 22nd Convention. This was held on June 2, 1922, and attended by 338 delegates, representing 235 branches of the organization from 23 states.
The National Executive Committee of the Workmen's Circle struck back, dissolving the Left Wing-dominated Boston District Committee and removing several Left Wingers from positions of authority in the organization. The Left Wing found itself in a majority position in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, inspiring the National Executive Committee to dissolve the five state organizations, as well as various Left Wing branches. Despite the rough treatment, the Left Wing resisted splitting the organization, instead opting to continue its fight within the Workman's Circle organization itself. This tactic was followed through 1925.
The 1925 Convention of the Arbeter Ring was particularly bitter. Nearly 1,000 delegates were in attendance, of whom approximated one-fourth supported a program of the Left Wing calling for the Workmen's Circle to become an actively political organization. The Left Wing fought relentlessly to win the right to read a 10 minute statement to the convention, declaring that "to our shame, the Workmen's Circle, our Order, lately has become and out-and-out toll and weapon in the hands of the reactionary element in the Jewish working class movement." A two-day "National Protest Conference" was held in response to the Socialist-dominated convention, which was attended by the representatives of 191 branches. The conference organized itself into a "Left Wing Alliance" and declared that it would fight "against the terror of the Right Wing machine" and "for the non-party [i.e. non-Socialist Party] character of the Workmen's Circle." Aid to the children's school movement, a pet project of the Left, was pledged.
The National Executive Committee of the Workmen's Circle responded to the organization of the Left Wing Alliance predictably, expelling 64 branches with a membership of close to 15,000. This put the Executive Committee of the Alliance in a precarious situation. Rather than risk "suicide" through a premature split, the Executive Committee instructed its branches to comply with various requests of the NEC to resign from the Alliance or be expelled. A split was thereby narrowly averted. The NEC adopted a lengthy process for reinstatement of expelled branches, drawing out the process over months and demoralizing the Left Wing.
As the Communist movement became more radical at the end of the 1920s, following the doctrine of the so-called Third Period
Third Period
The Third Period is a ideological concept adopted by the Communist International at its 6th World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928....
of new revolutionary upheaval, the bad marriage of Socialists and Communists in the Arbeter Ring crashed upon the rocks. The 1929 Convention attempted to eliminate the Left Wing from participation. The gathering was addressed by a guest speaker, Victor Chernov, leader of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR), considered a notorious counterrevolutionary by the Communists of the day. In the supercharged environment, it was charged that a physical attack was made on the reporter of the Communist Party's Yiddish daily, the Freiheit. The convention renewed the two controversial Toronto resolutions of 1922 and formally approved the action of the NEC in suppressing the Left Wing movement in the Workmen's Circle.
A split was at hand. On October 11, 1929, a three day "National Conference of Minority Groups of the Workmen's Circle" gathered in New York City, attended by 193 delegates, representing 108 branches and 23 minority factions of branches. These delegates unanimously decided to leave the Workmen's Circle and build a new explicitly working class order. A manifesto issued by the conference declared:
"The time has come when everyone who takes the interests of the workers seriously must shake off the dust of the Workmen's Circle. The Workmen's Circle, originally organized under the banner of the class struggle, writing into its program the abolition of the capitalist order...has been transformed in the past few years into an instrument of capitalist politics.
"There was not one single important occasion in the life of the Jewish workers in the last 7 or 8 years when the leadership of the Workmen's Circle did not line up with the enemies of the working class. The counterrevolutionary physiognomy of the Workmen's Circle is most clearly expressed in its attitude toward the Soviet Union, the only proletarian state in the world, the pride and crown of achievement of all class conscious workers throughout the entire world."
Establishment of the IWO
The first General Secretary of the IWO was Rubin Saltzman and the first President was William Weiner, both "open and prominent" members of the Communist Party USA.The IWO described itself in the following manner in its "Declaration of Principles":
"The IWO provides sick, disability and death benefits. It organizes for its members medical aid and other forms of fraternal services. It pledges aid and comfort to its members in case of need. The ranks of the International Workers Order and its societies are open to all regardless of sex, nationality, race, color, creed or political affiliation."
The IWO provided very low cost term life insurance, coverage which could be supplemented with additional protection against sickness. The Order did not employ sales representatives and paid no commissions on policies sold. For many, the IWO took over the social functions associated with the Communist Party's language federations, which had lessened in importance throughout the decade of the 1920s. Different national sections of the IWO published news in their own languages, organized singing societies, sports teams, marching bands, dance companies, and theater groups.
The IWO grew rapidly, from a tiny organization of 3,000 to 5,000 members at the time of formation in 1930, the organization rocketed to a membership of 67,000 by 1935. By 1938 it had grown to over 141,000. Members who recruited new members to the IWO were known in organizational parlance as "builders."
While the IWO aggressively promoted the Communist Party's program and policies to its members, one scholarly observer has concluded that
"In reality, most members were attracted to the low cost and nondiscriminatory availability of insurance and the willingness to take on as insureds anyone who worked, even those who worked in dangerous or high risk employment, as well as the mutual aid benefits of the Order.... That it was also dedicated to left-wing, 'progressive,' or indeed Party-supported causes and rhetoric cannot and should not be ignored or glossed over; nevertheless, for most of its members, the IWO met pragmatic needs in an economic and social framework."
As World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
approached, membership in the IWO continued to climb. At the end of September 1941, the organization claimed a membership of 155,000 and assets approaching $1.9 million. According to the testimony of the IWO's General Secretary, Max Bedacht
Max Bedacht
Max Bedacht Sr. was a German-born American revolutionary socialist political activist, journalist, and functionary who helped establish the Communist Party of America. Bedacht is best remembered as the long-time head of the International Workers Order, a Communist Party-sponsored fraternal benefit...
, these members were organized into over 19,000 branches and generated an income for the organization of over $1 million per year.
Post-war years
At its height in the years immediately following World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the IWO had almost 200,000 members and provided low-cost health
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
and life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
, medical
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and dental
Dentistry
Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...
clinics, and supported foreign-language newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s, cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
al activities. The IWO offered insurance to all working people at the same rate regardless of race or occupation and was, at the time, the only service provider where African Americans could obtain insurance at the same rate as others and also the only place where workers in dangerous occupations such as coal mining could obtain insurance at a rate equivalent to other occupations.
The IWO also ran a Jewish summer camp, Camp Kinderland
Camp Kinderland
Camp Kinderland is a summer camp located in Tolland, Massachusetts for boys and girls aged nine through sixteen. The camp's motto is summer camp with a conscience since 1923. The main topics of the curriculum are: equality, peace, community, social justice, activism, civil rights, Yiddishkeit,...
and the racially integrated camp Wo-Chi-Ca. Additionally the IWO owned and operated cemeteries throughout the US and Canada, a common practice among left wing Jewish
Jewish left
The term "Jewish left" describes Jews who identify with or support left wing, occasionally liberal causes, consciously as Jews, either as individuals or through organizations. There is no one organization or movement which constitutes the "Jewish left," however...
mutual-aid organizations like the Farband
Farband
There were at least two American Jewish organizations colloquially known as the Farband -- the Communist-oriented Yidisher Kultur Farband and the Labor Zionist-oriented Yidish Natsionaler Arbeter Farband .-YKUF / Jewish Culture Association:The Yidisher Kultur Farband There were at least two...
and the Workmen's Circle.
While the leadership of IWO sections were members of the Communist Party most of the IWO's rank-and-file members were not party members.
The IWO was made up of a total of 15 sections, the largest section of which was the Jewish section representing one-third of the membership of the IWO and which in 1944 was renamed the Jewish People's Fraternal Order. There was also an English section and 13 other language sections including the Hungarian Workmen's Sick, Benevolent, and Educational Federation; the Ukrainian-American Fraternal Union; the Carpatho-Russian National Society; the (Spanish) Cervantes Society Mutualista Obrera Puertorriqueña; the (Italian) Garibaldi American Fraternal Society; the Hellenic-American Brotherhood; the Serbian-American Federation; the Russian American Mutual Aid Society; the Slovak Workers Society; the Polonia Society; the Rumanian American Fraternal Society; the Czech Workers Society and the Finnish American Mutual Aid Society (descended from the Finnish Socialist Federation
Finnish Socialist Federation
The Finnish Socialist Federation was a language federation of the Socialist Party of America which united Finnish language-speaking immigrants in the United States in a national organization designed to conduct propaganda and education for socialism among their community.-Early Finnish socialist...
).
Demise and legacy
As early as 1944, the Special Committee on Un-American Activities of the US House of Representatives (best known as the Dies Committee) attacked the IWO as a "huge patronage machine furnishing positions for a host of Communist functionaries, who serve as the party's controlling commissars within the organization." The Dies Committee expressed its confidence that "a comparison made in each local area will bear out the charge that the personnel of the Communist Party and the International Workers Order interlock closely." In addition to General Secretaries Saltzman and Bedacht, those explicitly singled out by the Dies Committee for membership in the Communist Party while holding an executive position in the IWO were President William Weiner, Executive Secretary Herbert Benjamin, General Executive Board members Moissaye J. Olgin and Max Steinberg, and assistant to the General Secretary Rebecca Grecht, among others.As a financial support mechanism of the Communist Party, the IWO came under concerted government attack during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
which erupted following the termination of World War II. The U.S. Attorney General placed the IWO on its list of subversive organizations in 1947. Though financially solvent and conservatively managed, the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
State Insurance Department contended that, since the IWO was engaged in political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
activity, which was prohibited to insurance organizations, it placed its members' interests in jeopardy, leading ultimately to its liquidation in 1954.
Following the demise of the IWO, Camp Kinderland became an independent entity and the Jewish People's Fraternal Order reconstituted itself as the Jewish Cultural Clubs and Societies without the mutual benefit component of JPFO. A Canadian equivalent of the JPFO, the United Jewish People's Order, still exists as does the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians
Association of United Ukrainian Canadians
The Association of United Ukrainian Canadians is a national cultural-educational non-profit organization established for Ukrainians in Canada...
.
Conventions
- Founding Convention — May 1931.
- 2nd Convention — Chicago, June 1933.
- 3rd Convention — New York City, May 5-11, 1935.
- 4th Convention — Pittsburgh, PA, April 23-30, 1938.
- 5th Convention —
- 6th Convention — New York City, July 2-7, 1944.
Further reading
- IWO, Five Years of the International Workers Order, 1930-1935. New York: National Executive Committee of the IWO, 1935.
- Promoting Security: Facts About the Role and Purpose of the International Workers Order. New York: International Workers Order, 1940.
- Arthur J. Sabin, Red Scare in Court: New York versus the International Workers Order. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
External links
- Tim Davenport, "International Workers Order (1922 - 1946): Organizational History," Early American Marxism website, Corvallis, OR. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
- "Guide to the International Workers Order Records," Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
- "Guide to the International Workers Order Records," Tamiment Library at Bobst Library, New York University, New York City. Retrieved August 11, 2010.