The Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) was established by

William Z. Foster William Z. Foster (born William Edward Foster; February 25, 1881 – September 1, 1961) was a radical American labor organizer and Communist politician, whose career included serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1945 to ...

in 1920 (through 1928) as a means of uniting radicals within various

trade unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

for a common plan of action. The group was subsidized by the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

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

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...

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 The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...

, 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 The Trade Union Unity League (TUUL) was an industrial union umbrella organization under the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) between 1929 and 1935. The group was an American affiliate of the Red International of Labor Unions. The fo ...

(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. The group was very nearly stillborn, counting only about two dozen active members at its outset, including left wing

Socialists Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...

Communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

, and former

Wobblies The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...

. Shortly after the tiny group was called into being, Foster departed for

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

, ostensibly as a correspondent for the

Federated Press ''This is not to be confused with the independent, research-based organization of Toronto, Canada, also called that targets executives, lawyers, professionals.'' The Federated Press was a left wing news agency, news service, established in 1920, ...

news service, but actually to attend the Founding Congress of the

Red International of Labor Unions The Red International of Labor Unions (, RILU), commonly known as the Profintern (), was an international body established by the Communist International (Comintern) with the aim of coordinating communist activities within trade unions. Formally ...

(RILU), best known by its contracted Russian name, "Profintern." The trip would prove to be important, as the former

syndicalist Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goal of gainin ...

Foster came to closely identify with the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...

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 Samuel Gompers (; January 27, 1850December 11, 1924) was a British-born American cigar maker, labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as the organization's ...

, head of the

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

"The forty-one year old
oster Oster (, ; ) is a city in Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located where the Oster River flows into the Desna. Oster hosts the administration of Oster urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is Today O ...
was everything Gompers was not. He embraced
Communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
and the Red International of Labor Unions, or Profintern (RILU), advocated independent
working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
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 is a trade union organising 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 b ...
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.'"

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.Albert and Palladino, "Introduction," ''Samuel Gompers Papers: Vol. 12,'' pg. xvi.

Structure

The TUEL did not have formal membership rolls or paid dues.Ralph Darlington, ''Radical Unionism: The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Syndicalism.''

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * "008", a fictional 00 Agent In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and the derived films, the 00 Section of MI6 is considered the secret service's elite. A 00 (pronounced "Double O") is a field agent who ho ...

Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2013; pg. 282. 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.

Transformation of the organization

In 1928, as a byproduct of the

Third Period The Third Period is an ideological concept adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. It set policy until reversed when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933. The Cominte ...

ultra-radicalism of the

, the TUEL was transformed into the

(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

Footnotes

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.

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 Mikhail Pavlovich Tomsky (''Russian:'' Михаи́л Па́влович То́мский), born Mikhail Pavlovich Yefremov (''Russian:'' Ефре́мов) (31 October 1880 – 22 August 1936) was a factory worker, trade unionist, and Soviet poli ...

, ''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. 923 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

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

Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1924. Labor Herald Library #14. *

Tim Buck Timothy Buck (January 6, 1891 – March 11, 1973) was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada (known as the Labor-Progressive Party from 1943 to 1959) from 1929 until 1962. Together with Ernst Thälmann of Germany, Maurice ...

, ''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 Cannonbr>''Trade unions in America''
by Chicago, Ill.: Published for the Trade Union Educational League by the

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

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.

External links

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

{{Authority control Defunct trade unions in the United States TUEL Communist Party USA mass organizations Profintern William Z. Foster Trade unions established in 1920 1920 establishments in the United States