The American Workers Party (AWP) was a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

organization established in December 1933 by activists in the

Conference for Progressive Labor Action The Conference for Progressive Labor Action (CPLA) was a left-wing American political organization established in May 1929 by A. J. Muste, the director of Brookwood Labor College. The organization was established to promote industrial unionism an ...

, a group headed by

A.J. Muste Abraham Johannes Muste ( ; January 8, 1885 – February 11, 1967) was a Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist. He is best remembered for his work in the labor movement, pacifist movement, antiwar movement, and civil rights movement ...

Formation

The American Workers Party was established in December 1933 by activists in the

. The figurative leader of the AWP was Muste, but it had a structure and values that lent its

far-left Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars conside ...

radicalism a highly democratic and collaborative quality.

Actions

The AWP sought to find what it called "an American approach" for

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

at the depth of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The group published a popularly-written newspaper, ''Labor Action'', and created Unemployed Leagues, which attracted tens of thousands of members and should not be confused with the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Rev ...

Unemployed Councils The Unemployed Councils of the USA (UC) was a mass organization of the Communist Party, USA established in 1930 in an effort to organize and mobilize unemployed workers to advance party policy goals in preparation for an anticipated final confli ...

. The AWP is best known in

labor history Labor history or labour history is a sub-discipline of social history which specialises on the history of the working classes and the labor movement. Labor historians may concern themselves with issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and other fac ...

for its leadership of the successful 1934 Toledo

Auto-Lite Strike The Toledo Auto-Lite strike was a strike by a federal labor union of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) against the Electric Auto-Lite company of Toledo, Ohio, from April 12 to June 3, 1934. The strike is notable for a five-day running b ...

, which foreshadowed the creation of the

United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American Labor unions in the United States, labor union that represents workers in the Un ...

union. Exerting influence through its Unemployed League chapter, the AWP in Toledo kept the Auto-Lite strike from being broken by the desperate unemployed. Instead, the AWP brought the mass of unemployed to bear as a powerful vehicle for solidarity with the auto parts factory workers on the picket lines. The Auto-Lite strike, along with the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 (led by the

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

Communist League of America The Communist League of America (Opposition) was founded by James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman and Martin Abern late in 1928 after their expulsion from the Communist Party USA for Trotskyism. The CLA(O) was the United States section of Leon Trotsky's I ...

) and the

1934 West Coast Longshore Strike The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike (also known as the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, as well as a number of variations on these names) lasted 83 days, and began on May 9, 1934 when longshoremen in every US West Coast port walked out ...

(led by the

), was an important catalyst for the rise of

industrial unionism Industrial unionism is a trade 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 ...

in the 1930s, much of which was organized through the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

. While it never actually attracted any workers, numbering no more than a few hundred members, the AWP attracted a number of prominent labor activists, such as J. B. S. Hardman of the needle trades. It also attracted a number of intellectuals, many of them former members of the Communist Party who rebelled against its strictures but remained radical. The latter included

James Burnham James Burnham (November 22, 1905 – July 28, 1987) was an American philosopher and political theorist. He chaired the New York University Department of Philosophy; his first book was ''An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis'' (1931). Burn ...

Sidney Hook Sidney Hook (December 20, 1902 – July 12, 1989) was an American philosopher of pragmatism known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics. After embracing communism in his you ...

James Rorty James Rorty (March 30, 1890February 26, 1973) was a 20th-century American radical writer and poet as well as political activist who addressed controversial topics that included McCarthyism, Jim Crow, American industries, advertising, and nutrition ...

, and V. F. Calverton.

Termination

In December 1934, the AWP merged with the Trotskyist

, to form the

Workers Party of the United States The Workers Party of the United States (WPUS) was established in December 1934 by a merger of the American Workers Party (AWP) led by A.J. Muste and the Trotskyist Communist League of America (CLA) led by James P. Cannon. The party was dissolved i ...

. That was the fusion of two revolutionary socialist organizations, which had both successfully led two militant strikes to victory. Most AWP members were absorbed into the mainstream Trotskyist movement, and some, like Burnham, became major figures in later 1930s. A few others, such as

Louis Budenz Louis Francis Budenz (pronounced "byew-DENZ"; July 17, 1891 – April 27, 1972) was an American activist and writer, as well as a Soviet espionage agent and head of the ''Buben group'' of spies. He began as a labor activist and became a member ...

and Arnold Johnson, did not accept the rapprochement with Trotskyism and instead joined the Communist Party, considering its adoption of the

Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...

to be analogous to what the AWP had tried to accomplish with its "American approach." Others, such as Hook and Rorty, became political independents but remained, for a time, largely sympathetic to the Workers Party of the United States.

Sources

*Louis Budenz. ''This is My Story.'' McGraw-Hill, 1947. *Margaret Budenz. ''Streets.'' Our Sunday Visitor, 1979. *James P. Cannon. ''History of American Trotskyism''. Pathfinder Press, 1944. *Farrell Dobbs. ''Teamster Rebellion.'' Monad Press, 1972. *Sidney Hook. ''Out of Step: An Unquiet Life in the Twentieth Century.'' Harper & Row, 1987. *Christopher Phelps. ''Young Sidney Hook.'' Cornell University Press, 1997. *JoAnn Ooiman Robinson. ''Abraham Went Out.'' Temple, 1981. *

External links

* A.J. Muste
"My Experience in the Labor and Radical Struggles of the Thirties."
(mp3 audio) American Archive Pilot Project, Illinois Public Media, WILL. Speech of February 9, 1966. —Original resides in the archives of the University of Illinois.
''Toward an American revolutionary labor movement; statement of programmatic orientation''
( ttps://web.archive.org/web/20091027125610/http://www.geocities.com/youth4sa/Toledo-1934.html Archived2009-10-25)
Street Fighting Man, A Look at the 1934 Auto-Lite Strike
{{Authority control Defunct political parties in the United States Defunct social democratic parties in the United States Defunct socialist parties in the United States Defunct Marxist parties in the United States Political parties established in 1933 Political parties disestablished in 1934 1933 establishments in the United States 1934 disestablishments in the United States