United States 1937

Synopsis

The Committee for Industrial Organization (later changed to Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO) formed within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1935 and was expelled from that organization in 1937. Between 1935 and 1937 the AFL and the CIO engaged in a bitter struggle focused on issues of strategy, timing, and personality. The backdrop of the struggle augmented the intensity of the conflict. In the midst of the Great Depression, working people had every incentive to organize. Facing layoffs, wage cuts, and growing corporate control of work processes, new segments of the workforce turned to unions for representation. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies facilitated a broader role for trade unions.

In this situation, unions were poised to recruit large numbers of new members and participate in electoral politics on an unprecedented level. AFL vice president John L. Lewis, president of...