Samuel Gompers, president of the
American Federation of Labor and the leading trade unionist in the late 1800s and early 1900s, once said, "If all business owners treated their workers as well as George Westinghouse, the
American Federation of Labor would have to go out of business."
Lane Kirkland,
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Independent Organizations: for his contributions to the American defense and transportation industries through his work in the American labor movement.
[right arrow] In October 1935, the
American Federation of Labor and the NAACP announced their support for a boycott of the 1936 Berlin Olympics
But the
American Federation of Labor, chastened by the "red scare" that followed the Haymarket events, went along with those who opposed May Day observances.
William Green,
American Federation of Labor," Opportunity, vol.
It's the deepest schism since the
American Federation of Labor expelled the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1937 - a rift that was not healed until 1955 - but the result could be a re-energized labor movement.
Established by urban artisans in 1899, the Federacion Libre became an affiliate of the
American Federation of Labor (AFL) in September of 1901.
The act's original draft contained a clause forbidding discrimination against African Americans by federally recognized unions, but the clause was removed at the behest of the
American Federation of Labor; a notoriously racist outfit at the time.
One hundred years ago, the
American Federation of Labor stood at a crossroads, facing the choice of an all-out assault against the free market system or making peace with capitalism.
To make this argument, Lipset and Marks downplay the importance of political structures that funneled voting into a choice between two conservative options; exaggerate the possibility that socialists could have made common cause with the
American Federation of Labor; stress the incessant factionalism and destructive orthodoxy of the Left; overemphasize the reality of democratic possibilities in a country mired in Jim Crow, urban political machines, and a formalistic Supreme Court; doubt the effectiveness of state repression; and naturalize an ahistoric "American culture." Though none of the topics are ignored--actually, each is carefully and insightfully examined in turn--they are never quite given their due.
Parsons saw the founding of the
American Federation of Labor, the Teamsters Union in his own city, the Socialist Party, and the extension of the vote to women in nine states.
Dubofsky carefully reconstructed the growing alliance between the Wilson administration and the
American Federation of Labor (AFL), and concluded that the shortlived reforms of the First World War constituted "a full dress rehearsal for the labor program of the New Deal" (p.
Soon disillusioned with the party leadership's insistence on unquestioning obedience, she briefly considered other left organizations but soon found her niche as a loyal
American Federation of Labor trade unionist and staunch anti-Communist.
