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Trade Union Educational League

January 31, 2023

"TUEL" redirects here. Not to be confused with Tuel.

The Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) was established by William Z. Foster in 1920 (through 1928) 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 Workers (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 pamphlets and circulation of a monthly magazine.

March 1923 issue of The Labor Herald, official organ of the Trade Union Educational League.

After several years of initial success, the group was marginalized by the unions of the American Federation of Labor, 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 (TUUL), which sought to establish radical dual unions in competition with existing labor organizations.

Organizational history

Origins

The Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) was founded in Chicago in November 1920 by William Foster and a handful of close associates hailing from the radical movement.[1] The group was very nearly stillborn, counting only about two dozen active members at its outset, including left wing Socialists, Communists, and former Wobblies.[2] Shortly after the tiny group was called into being, Foster departed for Soviet Russia, ostensibly as a correspondent for the Federated Press 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."[3]

The trip would prove to be important, as the former syndicalist 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 and acting as a fundraiser for Russian famine 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, head of the American Federation of Labor. 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 and the Red International of Labor Unions, or Profintern (RILU), advocated independent working-class 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 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 weapons in the revolutionary struggle.'"[4]

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.[5]

Structure

The TUEL did not have formal membership rolls or paid dues.[6] No membership cards were issued. The organization instead supported itself through sales of pamphlets and magazines and through an unpublicized subsidy by the Communist International by way of the Workers (Communist) Party.

Consequently, the size of the de facto membership of the organization is difficult to gauge. Historian Ralph Darlington notes that while TUEL declared a circulation for its publications of from 10,000 to 15,000, in fact the group only had "about 500 hard-core activists" at the time of its greatest strength during the first years of the 1920s.[6]

Transformation of the organization

In 1928, as a byproduct of the Third Period ultra-radicalism of the Communist International, the TUEL was transformed into the Trade Union Unity League (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.[7] 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[8] 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[9]
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[10]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Volume IX: The TUEL to the End of the Gompers Era. New York: International Publishers, 1991. Page 105.
  2. ^ Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 9, pg. 107.
  3. ^ Tim Davenport, "Trade Union Educational League: Organizational History," Early American Marxism website, Corvallis, OR. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  4. ^ Peter J. Albert and Grace Palladino, "Introduction," The Samuel Gompers Papers: Volume 12, The Last Years, 1922-24. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010; pg. xiv.
  5. ^ Albert and Palladino, "Introduction," Samuel Gompers Papers: Vol. 12, pg. xvi.
  6. ^ a b Ralph Darlington, Radical Unionism: The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Syndicalism. [2008] Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2013; pg. 282.
  7. ^ William Z. Foster From Bryan to Stalin p.164
  8. ^ William Z. Foster From Bryan to Stalin p.184
  9. ^ William Z. Foster From Bryan to Stalin, pg. 212.
  10. ^ William Z. Foster From Bryan to Stalin, pp. 216-217.

Publications

  • William Z. Foster, The Railroaders' Next Step. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1921. Labor Herald Library #1. Revised edition published as The Railroaders' Next Step: Amalgamation.
  • William Z. Foster, The Russian Revolution. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1921. Labor Herald Library #2.
  • William Z. Foster, The Revolutionary Crisis of 1918-1921: in Germany, England, Italy and France. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1921. Labor Herald Library #3.
  • William Z. Foster, The Bankruptcy of the American Labor Movement. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1921. Labor Herald Library #4.
  • The Principles and Program of the Trade Union Educational League. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1922.
  • Jay Fox, Amalgamation. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1923. Labor Herald Library #5.
  • Resolutions and Decisions: Second World Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions Held in Moscow, November 1922. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1922. Labor Herald Library #6.
  • Mikhail Tomsky, The Russian Trade Unions in 1923. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1922. Labor Herald Library #7.
  • Earl Browder and Andrés Nin, Struggle of the Trade Unions against Fascism. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1923. Labor Herald Library #8.
  • William F. Dunne, William F. Dunne's Speech at the AF of L Convention, Portland, 1923. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, n.d. [1923]. Labor Herald Library #9.
  • A. Losovsky, The World's Trade Union Movement. by Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1924. Labor Herald Library #10.
  • William Z. Foster, Russia in 1924. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1924. Labor Herald Library #11.
  • Resolutions and Decisions: Third World Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions, Held in Moscow, July, 1924. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1924. Labor Herald Library #12.
  • A. Losovsky, Lenin, the Great Strategist of the Class War. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1924. Labor Herald Library #13.
  • A. Losovsky, Lenin and the Trade Union Movement. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1924. Labor Herald Library #14.
  • Tim Buck, Steps to Power: A Program of Action for the Trade Union Minority of Canada. Toronto: Trade Union Educational League, 1925.
  • William Z. Foster, Earl Browder and James Cannon Trade unions in America by Chicago, Ill.: Published for the Trade Union Educational League by the Daily Worker 1925 (Little red library #1) alternate link
  • Robert W. Dunn, American Company Unions: A Study of Employee Representation Plans, "Works Councils" and Other Substitutes for Labor Unions. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1926. Labor Herald Library #15.
  • William Z. Foster, Russian Workers and Workshops in 1926. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1926. Labor Herald Library #16.
  • William Z. Foster, Organize the Unorganized. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1926. Labor Herald Library #17.
  • William Z. Foster, Strike Strategy. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1926. Labor Herald Library #18.
  • A Fighting Union for the Needle Workers!: Program Adopted at a Conference of Delegates Representing the Progressive Members of the Following Needle Trades Unions: Amalgamated Clothing Workers, International Ladies Garment Workers, Furriers, Cap and Millinery Workers, United Hatters, Journeymen Tailors, United Garment Workers. New York: The Needle Trades Section of the Trade Union Educational League, 1926.
  • William Z. Foster, The Watson-Parker Law: The Latest Scheme to Hamstring Railroad Unionism. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1927. Labor Herald Library #19.
  • William Z. Foster, Wrecking the Labor Banks: The Collapse of the Labor Banks and Investment Companies of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1927. Labor Herald Library #20.
  • William Z. Foster, Misleaders of Labor. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1927.
  • Save the Miners Union from the Coal Operators and the Corrupt Lewis Machine: Program Adopted by the National Save the Miners' Union Conference, April 1, 1928, Pittsburgh, Pa. n.c.: United Mine Workers of America, 1928.
  • Program of the Trade Union Educational League New York: Trade Union Educational, 1928.
  • Do You Want Higher Wages? Do You Want Shorter Working Hours? New York: Trade Union Educational League, 1929.

Further reading

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

See also

External links

  • Trade Union Educational League (1920 - 1928). TUEL organizational history and documents. Early American Marxism website. Retrieved September 4, 2009.
  • Publications of the TUEL

January 31, 2023
trade, union, educational, league, tuel, redirects, here, confused, with, tuel, tuel, established, william, foster, 1920, through, 1928, means, uniting, radicals, within, various, trade, unions, common, plan, action, group, subsidized, communist, international. TUEL redirects here Not to be confused with Tuel The Trade Union Educational League TUEL was established by William Z Foster in 1920 through 1928 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 Workers 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 pamphlets and circulation of a monthly magazine March 1923 issue of The Labor Herald official organ of the Trade Union Educational League After several years of initial success the group was marginalized by the unions of the American Federation of Labor 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 TUUL which sought to establish radical dual unions in competition with existing labor organizations Contents 1 Organizational history 1 1 Origins 1 2 Development 1 3 Structure 1 4 Transformation of the organization 2 Conferences 3 Footnotes 4 Publications 5 Further reading 6 See also 7 External linksOrganizational history EditOrigins Edit The Trade Union Educational League TUEL was founded in Chicago in November 1920 by William Foster and a handful of close associates hailing from the radical movement 1 The group was very nearly stillborn counting only about two dozen active members at its outset including left wing Socialists Communists and former Wobblies 2 Shortly after the tiny group was called into being Foster departed for Soviet Russia ostensibly as a correspondent for the Federated Press 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 3 The trip would prove to be important as the former syndicalist 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 and acting as a fundraiser for Russian famine 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 Edit 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 head of the American Federation of Labor 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 and the Red International of Labor Unions or Profintern RILU advocated independent working class 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 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 weapons in the revolutionary struggle 4 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 5 Structure Edit The TUEL did not have formal membership rolls or paid dues 6 No membership cards were issued The organization instead supported itself through sales of pamphlets and magazines and through an unpublicized subsidy by the Communist International by way of the Workers Communist Party Consequently the size of the de facto membership of the organization is difficult to gauge Historian Ralph Darlington notes that while TUEL declared a circulation for its publications of from 10 000 to 15 000 in fact the group only had about 500 hard core activists at the time of its greatest strength during the first years of the 1920s 6 Transformation of the organization Edit In 1928 as a byproduct of the Third Period ultra radicalism of the Communist International the TUEL was transformed into the Trade Union Unity League 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 EditConference Location Date AttendeesFirst Chicago August 26 27 1922 Attended by 45 delegates from 26 cities included 4 from Canada Raided by police 7 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 8 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 9 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 10 Footnotes Edit Philip S Foner History of the Labor Movement in the United States Volume IX The TUEL to the End of the Gompers Era New York International Publishers 1991 Page 105 Foner History of the Labor Movement in the United States vol 9 pg 107 Tim Davenport Trade Union Educational League Organizational History Early American Marxism website Corvallis OR Retrieved August 23 2010 Peter J Albert and Grace Palladino Introduction The Samuel Gompers Papers Volume 12 The Last Years 1922 24 Urbana University of Illinois Press 2010 pg xiv Albert and Palladino Introduction Samuel Gompers Papers Vol 12 pg xvi a b Ralph Darlington Radical Unionism The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Syndicalism 2008 Chicago Haymarket Books 2013 pg 282 William Z Foster From Bryan to Stalin p 164 William Z Foster From Bryan to Stalin p 184 William Z Foster From Bryan to Stalin pg 212 William Z Foster From Bryan to Stalin pp 216 217 Publications EditWilliam Z Foster The Railroaders Next Step Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1921 Labor Herald Library 1 Revised edition published as The Railroaders Next Step Amalgamation William Z Foster The Russian Revolution Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1921 Labor Herald Library 2 William Z Foster The Revolutionary Crisis of 1918 1921 in Germany England Italy and France Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1921 Labor Herald Library 3 William Z Foster The Bankruptcy of the American Labor Movement Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1921 Labor Herald Library 4 The Principles and Program of the Trade Union Educational League Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1922 Jay Fox Amalgamation Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1923 Labor Herald Library 5 Resolutions and Decisions Second World Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions Held in Moscow November 1922 Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1922 Labor Herald Library 6 Mikhail Tomsky The Russian Trade Unions in 1923 Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1922 Labor Herald Library 7 Earl Browder and Andres Nin Struggle of the Trade Unions against Fascism Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1923 Labor Herald Library 8 William F Dunne William F Dunne s Speech at the AF of L Convention Portland 1923 Chicago Trade Union Educational League n d 1923 Labor Herald Library 9 A Losovsky The World s Trade Union Movement by Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1924 Labor Herald Library 10 William Z Foster Russia in 1924 Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1924 Labor Herald Library 11 Resolutions and Decisions Third World Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions Held in Moscow July 1924 Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1924 Labor Herald Library 12 A Losovsky Lenin the Great Strategist of the Class War Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1924 Labor Herald Library 13 A Losovsky Lenin and the Trade Union Movement Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1924 Labor Herald Library 14 Tim Buck Steps to Power A Program of Action for the Trade Union Minority of Canada Toronto Trade Union Educational League 1925 William Z Foster Earl Browder and James Cannon Trade unions in America by Chicago Ill Published for the Trade Union Educational League by the Daily Worker 1925 Little red library 1 alternate link Robert W Dunn American Company Unions A Study of Employee Representation Plans Works Councils and Other Substitutes for Labor Unions Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1926 Labor Herald Library 15 William Z Foster Russian Workers and Workshops in 1926 Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1926 Labor Herald Library 16 William Z Foster Organize the Unorganized Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1926 Labor Herald Library 17 William Z Foster Strike Strategy Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1926 Labor Herald Library 18 A Fighting Union for the Needle Workers Program Adopted at a Conference of Delegates Representing the Progressive Members of the Following Needle Trades Unions Amalgamated Clothing Workers International Ladies Garment Workers Furriers Cap and Millinery Workers United Hatters Journeymen Tailors United Garment Workers New York The Needle Trades Section of the Trade Union Educational League 1926 William Z Foster The Watson Parker Law The Latest Scheme to Hamstring Railroad Unionism Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1927 Labor Herald Library 19 William Z Foster Wrecking the Labor Banks The Collapse of the Labor Banks and Investment Companies of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1927 Labor Herald Library 20 William Z Foster Misleaders of Labor Chicago Trade Union Educational League 1927 Save the Miners Union from the Coal Operators and the Corrupt Lewis Machine Program Adopted by the National Save the Miners Union Conference April 1 1928 Pittsburgh Pa n c United Mine Workers of America 1928 Program of the Trade Union Educational League New York Trade Union Educational 1928 Do You Want Higher Wages Do You Want Shorter Working Hours New York Trade Union Educational League 1929 Further reading EditPhilip S Foner 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 Philip S Foner History of the Labor Movement in the United States Vol 10 The TUEL 1925 1929 New York International Publishers 1994 David Moses Schneider 1899 The Workers communist party and American trade unions Baltimore The Johns Hopkins Press 1928 Edward Johanningsmeier Forging American Communism The Life of William Z Foster Princeton Princeton University Press 1994 See also Edit Organized labour portalTrade Union Unity League National Minority Movement Labor federation competition in the U S External links EditTrade Union Educational League 1920 1928 TUEL organizational history and documents Early American Marxism website Retrieved September 4 2009 Publications of the TUEL Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Trade Union Educational League amp oldid 1072319134, 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