Wm. Z. Foster

The Labor Movement

The American Federation of Labor Convention

(17 July 1922)


From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 2 No. 57, 17 July 1922, pp. 423–424.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2020). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.


In Cincinnati, from June 12th to 24th, the American Federation of Labor held its 42nd annual convention. Never was the labor movement in a more critical state, and never did its leaders prove themselves more incapable of solving its problems. At the present time, the American trade union movement is suffering from a desperate crisis, which threatens its very life. Yet this convention did absolutely nothing constructive to meet the situation. Gompers and his crowd repeated the same old petty bourgeois formulas that they have been repeating for the past forty years. They proposed absolutely nothing vital in any shape or manner.

No matter which way one turns one finds a new phase of the grave crisis confronting the American labor movement. On the political field the situation is deplorable. For many years past the trade unions in this country have bitterly fought and defeated every attempt to form any kind of a working-class political organization, and they have kept on following the childish political policy of “rewarding labor’s friends and punishing its enemies”. The result is that Labor has degenerated into a mere appendage of the big capitalist parties. It has practically no representatives in any of the local, state and national legislative assemblies. American organized labor is practically a political zero. Never was this more clearly illustrated than at the present time. The employers are in complete control of the courts and of every branch of government. They do as they please and adopt or revoke such laws as suit them. In the prevailing reaction they have practically taken away the right of free speech and free assembly from the workers. Besides this, they have all but abolished the famous Seamen’s Law, which organized Labor fought for thirty years to put on the statute books. Moreover, the Supreme Court has declared the Federal Child Labor Law unconstitutional, thus taking away even this measly protection from the child workers of the nation. And now the same Supreme Court, with one of the most important labor decisions ever rendered, has held that labor unions may be sued for damages caused by them during strikes. Altogether, the political situation is disastrous for Labor.

The A.F. of L. Convention did absolutely nothing of a serious character to offset this deplorable condition. The old tyrant, Gompers, could see no reason whatever for modifying any of the policies of the American Federation. The good old program of voting for Labor’s friends and voting against its enemies, was continued. There was not a resolution submitted to form even the mildest kind of a labor party, – so bankrupt are American labor leaders and so cringing are they before the despotism set up by Gompers. The only political program proposed was to try to secure four amendments to the United States Constitution, which would permit of freedom of action by the trade unions. To amend the United States Constitution is almost an impossibility, and to amend it four times by a labor movement that has absolutely no representatives in the government is a thing ridiculous. But that was the only thing the old bureaucracy had to offer.

The situation on the industrial field is even more disastrous than the one on the political field. The employers, encouraged by the timidity, incompetency and dishonesty of the old trade union bureaucrats, have been on the offensive against the unions for the past two years. The organizations in the steel industries were completely destroyed; likewise those in the great meat packing industry. For the past three months the textile workers have been on strike, and there is every likelihood that their organizations too will be totally eliminated. Just now, 670,000 coal miners are on strike and in danger of losing their fight, while 1,000,000 railroadmen are voting to strike on July 1st. Besides this, the employers have broken up large sections of the Building Trades, Boot and Shoe Workers, Printing Trades, etc. They are determined to root out trade unionism from American industry and to substitute the so-called “American Plan” or “open shop”.

The disastrous results of this great labor war are seen from the following figures. In 1921 the membership of the A.F. of L. was 3,906,528. According to the latest report, submitted by its secretary to the Cincinnati Convention, the membership has dropped to 3,165,635. This latter figure is heavily inflated. It is doubtful if the A.F. of L. at the present time has more than 2,500,000 members. During the past year the Textile Workers’ Union has shrunk from 104,900 to 30,000, the Seamen’s Union from 103,300 to 42,000 and many others accordingly. Unless means are found to stop this destruction of the trade unions, the spine of the labor movement in the United States will soon be broken.

To meet the critical situation on the industrial field, the old bureaucracy was just as sterile as it was in meeting the political problems. It voted down every proposition that tended in any way to modernize the unions. One resolution presented called for the amalgamation of all the craft unions into industrial organizations. This is an imperative necessity in the A.F. of L. How badly that organization is split up may be seen from the fact that it has 117 national unions to cover its 3,000,000 members, while the ADGB of Germany has only 49 for its 7,000,000 members. But the Gompers crowd could see no reason for changing this situation. The resolution was lost without a vote being taken on it. The only “progressive” thing done in this respect was to adopt a resolution favoring a federation of the several unions in the clothing trades. Industrially as well as politically, the leadership of the Gompers element was absolutely bankrupt.

All through the convention, the blackest reaction reigned. An alliance was developed between the A.F. of L. and the American Legion, a white-guard organization of former military men, which spends a large part of its time fighting organized labor The convention even refused to condemn the Ku Klux Klan, which is about on a par with the Fascisti of Italy. A resolution calling for the affiliation of the A.F. of L. with the Amsterdam International was defeated, as that yellow organization is considered entirely too revolutionary for American workers to associate with. A resolution demanding the establishment of trade relations with Russia was also lost, Mr. Gompers’ policy being to starve the Russians into submission. All the old bureaucrats were re-elected. Mr, Gompers was made President for the 41st time, even though he is now physically decrepit and barely able to see and hear.

The part played by the Socialist elements at the Congress was pitiful. In years gone by, they formed the opposition to the Gompers machine. But this year, they surrendered to him completely. The delegates from the three Socialist unions, the Ladies’ Garment Workers, Fur Workers, and Jewelry Workers, voted for every measure advocated by the Gompers administration. They even voted against the candidates for the Executive Council proposed by the railroad unions, which are somewhat progressive. In return, Mr. Gompers rewarded the leader of the Socialist delegation, Benjamin Schlesinger, by sending him as a fraternal delegate to the British Trade Union Congress. This incident apparently marks the end of all active Socialist opposition to Mr. Gompers in A.F. of L. conventions. At last he has domesticated the movement and absorbed it.

For the first time in the history of A.F. of L. conventions, a real left-wing movement manifested itself. The number of delegates was pitifully small and their influence even less. But the tendency they represented is the only hope of the American labor movement, They are the only elements with a progressive program, not to mention a revolutionary program, to offer. All the rest is sterility and reaction. The left-wing movement is growing rapidly throughout the trade unions in the United States. The old idea of starting separate revolutionary unions is being abandoned. Particularly is this the case in Canada, where the One Big Union has been practically liquidated in the past six months and replaced by the Trade Union Educational League. Considering the mental paralysis of the old trade union leaders and the servility of their new Socialist allies, it is safe to say that the Trade Union Educational League, with its policy of industrial unionism, affiliation to the Red Trade Union International, the creation of a militant workers’ political party and the establishment of the Workers’ Republic, will soon be a most powerful element in the American Labor Movement. In the United States, the future belongs to the revolutionary Left.



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