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The Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) was established by William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster
William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...

 in 1920 as a means of uniting radicals within various trade unions for a common plan of action. The group was subsidized by the Communist International via the Communist Party of America from 1922. The organization did not collect membership dues but instead ostensibly sought to both fund itself and to spread its ideas through the sale of pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...

s and circulation of a monthly magazine. After several years of initial success, the group was marginalized by the unions of the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...

, which objected to its strategy of "boring from within" existing unions in order to depose sitting union leaderships. In 1929 the organization was transformed into the Trade Union Unity League
Trade Union Unity League
The Trade Union Unity League was an industrial union umbrella organization of the Communist Party of the United States between 1929 and 1935...

 (TUUL), which sought to establish radical dual unions in competition with existing labor organizations.

Origins

The Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) was founded in Chicago in November 1920 by William Foster
William Z. Foster
William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...

 and a handful of close associates hailing from the radical movement. The group was very nearly stillborn, counting only about two dozen active members at its outset, including left wing Socialists
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...

, Communists, and former Wobblies
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...

. Shortly after the tiny group was called into being, Foster departed for Soviet Russia, ostensibly as a correspondent for the Federated Press
Federated Press
The Federated Press was a left wing news service established in 1920 that provided daily content to the radical and labor press in America.-History:...

 news service, but actually to attend the Founding Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU), best known by its contracted Russian name, "Profintern."

The trip would prove to be important, as the former syndicalist
Syndicalism
Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...

 Foster came to closely identify with the Bolshevik Revolution and its tactics.

After returning from Soviet Russia in 1921, quietly joined the underground Communist Party of America. He compiled his Russian journalism written for the Federated Press into a book called "The Russian Revolution" and set about touring the country lecturing on behalf of the Friends of Soviet Russia
Friends of Soviet Russia
The Friends of Soviet Russia was formally established in the United States on August 9, 1921 as an offshoot of the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations with Soviet Russia...

 and acting as a fundraiser for Russian famine
Russian famine of 1921
The Russian famine of 1921, also known as Povolzhye famine, which began in the early spring of that year, and lasted through 1922, was a severe famine that occurred in Bolshevik Russia...

 relief.

According to Foster's account, TUEL preexisted as an independent organization and "upon my return to the United States I had a meeting with the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party, who agreed to support the work of the Trade Union Educational League." Foster stated that "the League is not an organic section of the Party but is simply endorsed by it."

Development

Foster's efforts to organize radical trade unionists through TUEL to remake the structure of the labor movement and to overthrow its existing leadership put him at odds with Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...

, head of the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...

. Historians Peter J. Albert and Grace Palladino have summarized the situation in this manner:


"The forty-one year old [Foster] was everything Gompers was not. He embraced Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 and the Red International of Labor Unions, or Profintern (RILU), advocated independent working-class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

 political action, and believed that the AFL would have to function as a strong, centralized organization if it hoped to survive and grow. Whereas Gompers presumed that the great mass of workers would learn the value of solidarity through direct experience, Foster and his supporters favored a more top-down approach.... With amalgamation as its slogan, industrial unionism
Industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...

 as its goal, and 'boring from within' the established trade unions as its method, the TUEL promised to transform otherwise 'timid and muddled' AFL affiliates into 'scientifically constructed, class conscious
Class consciousness
Class consciousness is consciousness of one's social class or economic rank in society. From the perspective of Marxist theory, it refers to the self-awareness, or lack thereof, of a particular class; its capacity to act in its own rational interests; or its awareness of the historical tasks...

 weapons in the revolutionary struggle.'"


In defending the existing system from what he perceived as a Moscow-directed attack, Gompers availed himself of every opportunity to question Foster's motives and emphasize his close personal connection with the American Communist movement.

Transformation of the organization

In 1928, as a byproduct of the 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....

 ultra-radicalism of the Communist International, the TUEL was transformed into the Trade Union Unity League
Trade Union Unity League
The Trade Union Unity League was an industrial union umbrella organization of the Communist Party of the United States between 1929 and 1935...

 (TUUL), a federation of industrial unions established in opposition to the American Federation of Labor craft labor unions. Even though this change of tactics met a refutation of William Z. Foster's long-held strategy of "boring from within" the existing trade unions, in favor of "dual unionism," Foster nevertheless continued to remain loyal to the new TUUL organization.

Conferences

Conference Location Date Attendees
First Chicago August 26-27, 1922 Attended by 45 delegates from 26 cities, included 4 from Canada. Raided by police. See May 1923 issue of The Labor Herald for Foster's account of the trial.
Second Chicago September 1-2, 1923 Attended by 143 delegates representing 90 cities, including 3 from Canada and 1 from Mexico Proceedings published in October 1923 issue of The Labor Herald.
Third New York December 3-4, 1927 Attended by 297 delegates, 107 from the needle trades
Fourth Cleveland August 31-September 1, 1929 690 delegates; including 322 from recently organized NMU, NTWU and NTWIU; transform TUEL into Trade Union Unity League

Publications


Further reading

  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 9: The TUEL to the End of the Gompers Era. New York: International Publishers, 1991.
  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 10: The TUEL, 1925-1929. New York: International Publishers, 1994.
  • Schneider, David Moses, 1899- The Workers' (communist) party and American trade unions Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1928
  • Johanningsmeier, Edward, "Forging American Communism: The Life of William Z. Foster" Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

External links



See also

  • Trade Union Unity League
    Trade Union Unity League
    The Trade Union Unity League was an industrial union umbrella organization of the Communist Party of the United States between 1929 and 1935...

  • National Minority Movement
    National Minority Movement
    The National Minority Movement was a British organisation, established in 1924 by the Communist Party of Great Britain, which attempted to organise a radical presence within the existing trade unions...

  • Labor federation competition in the U.S.
    Labor federation competition in the U.S.
    A labor federation is a group of unions or labor organizations that are in some sense coordinated. The terminology used to identify such organizations grows out of usage, and has sometimes been imprecise. For example, nationals are sometimes named internationals, federations are named unions,...

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