International Fur and Leather Workers Union
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The International Fur and Leather Workers Union (IFLWU), was a
labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
that represented workers in the fur and leather trades.


History

The IFLWU was founded in 1913 and affiliated with 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 mutu ...
(AFL). Radical union organizers, including
Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...
, played a role in the union from its early years. They took control using violence in the 1920s, and it became one of the major bases in the labor movement. Irving Howe says that the Communists used: :shock troops, a sort of paramilitary vanguard handy with knives, belts, pikes. The most active radical and long-time Communist
Ben Gold Benjamin Gold (1898–1985) was an American labor leader and Communist Party member who was president of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union (IFLWU) from 1937 to 1955. Early life Ben Gold was born September 8, 1898 to Israel and Sara ...
, was president from 1935 until he was forced out by moderates in the 1940s. In 1937, the IFLWU left the AFL and joined the new
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 ...
(CIO), led by
John L. Lewis John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the d ...
. In 1948, former CIO general counsel
Lee Pressman Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906 – November 20, 1969) was a labor attorney and earlier a US government functionary, publicly alleged in 1948 to have been a spy for Soviet intelligence during the mid-1930s (as a member of the Ware Group), following hi ...
joined
Joseph Forer Joseph Forer (11 August 1910 – 20 June 1986) was a 20th-century American attorney who, with partner David Rein, supported Progressive causes, including discriminated communists and African-Americans. Forer was one of the founders of the Nation ...
, a Washington-based attorney, in representing Irving Potash, vice president of the Fur and Leather Workers Union along with four others (
Gerhard Eisler Gerhart Eisler (20 February 1897 – 21 March 1968) was a German politician, Editing, editor and publicist. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Communist Party of Austria, Austrian German Communist Party (KPDÖ) a ...
, supposedly the top Soviet agent in America; Ferdinand C. Smith, secretary of the
National Maritime Union The National Maritime Union (NMU) was an American labor union founded in May 1937. It affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in July 1937. After a failed merger with a different maritime group in 1988, the union merged w ...
; Charles A. Doyle of the Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers Union, and John Williamson, labor secretary of 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 Revo ...
). On May 5, 1948, Pressman and Forer received a preliminary injunction so their defendants might have hearings with examiners unconnected with the investigations and prosecutions by examiners of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...
. Between 1949 and 1950, with
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
tensions rising, the CIO expelled the IFLWU and 10 other unions that it accused of being " communist dominated." In 1955, the union merged into the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America union.


Presidents

:1913: A. Miller :1923: Morris Kaufman :1927: Philip Silberstein :1937:
Ben Gold Benjamin Gold (1898–1985) was an American labor leader and Communist Party member who was president of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union (IFLWU) from 1937 to 1955. Early life Ben Gold was born September 8, 1898 to Israel and Sara ...


See also

*
Amalgamated Meat Cutters The Amalgamated Meat Cutters (AMC), officially the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, 1897–1979, was a labor union that represented retail and packinghouse workers. In 1979, the AMCBW merged with the Retail Clerks I ...
*
Henry Foner Henry Joseph Foner (March 23, 1919 – January 11, 2017) was a 20th-century Jewish-American social activist and president for more than two decades of the Joint Board, Fur, Leather and Machine Workers Union (FLM). He and his three older broth ...
*
Lee Pressman Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906 – November 20, 1969) was a labor attorney and earlier a US government functionary, publicly alleged in 1948 to have been a spy for Soviet intelligence during the mid-1930s (as a member of the Ware Group), following hi ...
*
Nathan Witt Nathan Witt (February 11, 1903 – February 16, 1982), born Nathan Wittowsky, was an American lawyer who is best known as being the Secretary of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1937 to 1940. He resigned from the NLRB after his commun ...
* Max Federman


References


External links


Records of the IFLWU (Cornell University)


Further reading

*Steve Rosswurm, ''The CIO's Left-Led Unions'' (Rutgers University Press, 1992), pp. 159–181. Defunct trade unions in the United States Leather industry trade unions Trade unions established in 1913 Fur United Food and Commercial Workers 1913 establishments in the United States {{US-trade-union-stub