The Workers Alliance of America (WAA) was a
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 ...
era political organization established in March 1935 in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
which united several efforts to mobilize unemployed workers under a single banner. Founded by the
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
(SPA), the Workers Alliance was later joined by the
Unemployed Councils of the USA, a
mass organization
A mass movement denotes a political party or movement which is supported by large segments of a population. Political movements that typically advocate the creation of a mass movement include the ideologies of communism, fascism, and liberalism. Bo ...
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 ...
(CPUSA), and by the
National Unemployed Leagues originating with
A.J. Muste's 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 ...
(CPLA) and successor organizations.
The WAA was initially headed by Socialist
David Lasser
David Lasser (March 20, 1902 – May 5, 1996) was an American writer and political activist. Lasser is remembered as one of the most influential figures of early science fiction writing, working closely with Hugo Gernsback. He was also heavily in ...
, but the organization gradually came to be dominated by the CPUSA, which had superior size and organizational discipline compared to its partners. Originally resembling a
trade 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 ( ...
for relief workers employed by the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
(WPA), in its later incarnation it came to resemble a political pressure group focused upon winning additional funding of the WPA by a budget-conscious Congress.
The organization rapidly atrophied after 1939, in the wake of the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
, long_name = Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
, image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27337, Moskau, Stalin und Ribbentrop im Kreml.jpg
, image_width = 200
, caption = Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking ...
and the eruption of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in Europe and was terminated in 1941.
Organizational history
The early 1930s were marked by extreme hostility between the various political parties of the American left wing, including most notably 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 ...
(CPUSA) and the
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
(SPA). Under the so-called
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 Comint ...
line of the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
, the Communists vigorously and aggressively attacked the Socialists at every turn as so-called "
social fascists
Social fascism (also socio-fascism) was a theory that was supported by the Communist International (Comintern) and affiliated communist parties in the early 1930s that held that social democracy was a variant of fascism because it stood in the way ...
" — ideological fellow travelers who both enabled and advanced a
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
agenda as a de facto wing of the international fascist movement. The Socialists responded to hostility with hostility of their own, bitterly asserting that the American Communist Party was no more than a deceitful and manipulative appendage of
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
foreign policy, advancing the agenda of a nation headed by an anti-democratic dictator in the person of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
.
The rise to state power of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
in Germany and the brutal repression of Socialists and Communists which followed shaped the attitudes of both the Communist and Socialist movements. A new turn to
united front
A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...
efforts on the part of the Communists began in 1934, culminating with the
7th World Congress of the Comintern
The Seventh World Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) was a multinational conference held in Moscow from July 25 through August 20, 1935 by delegated representatives of ruling and non-ruling communist parties from around the world ...
in the summer of 1935, which explicitly endorsed cooperation with non-communists in an effort to undermine and roll back fascism. Cooperation in joint political ventures, including participation of non-communist leaders, became the order of the day.
Late in 1933 and into 1934 the Communists had made overtures to rank-and-file activists in Socialist-led unemployed worker organizations to "build the united front in spite of your leaders" and to forge unity "over the heads of...splitting leaders."
[Harvey Klehr, ''The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade.'' New York: Basic Books, 1984; pg. 295.] Now the so-called "united front from below" would be set aside and real efforts made to engage in joint work with Socialist-led organizations, beginning with the convocation of a National Congress for Unemployment and Social Insurance by the CPUSA in January 1935.
While this initial activity drew only limited participation from the Socialists early in the planning process and was boycotted by the fledgling
American Workers Party
The American Workers Party (AWP) was a socialist organization established in December 1933 by activists in the Conference for Progressive Labor Action, a group headed by A.J. Muste.
Formation
The American Workers Party was established in Decem ...
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 movemen ...
, the stage was set for future joint work on the unemployment issue.
The Workers Alliance of America would ultimately prove to be the umbrella organization bringing these three political entities — the Communists, Socialists, and "Musteites" — together for joint work.
Establishment
The Workers Alliance of America (WAA) was actually a venture of the Socialist Party of America in its earliest incarnation.
An inaugural convention was held early in March 1935, chaired by Socialist
David Lasser
David Lasser (March 20, 1902 – May 5, 1996) was an American writer and political activist. Lasser is remembered as one of the most influential figures of early science fiction writing, working closely with Hugo Gernsback. He was also heavily in ...
, head of the
New York Workers Committee on Unemployment
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
.
Lasser had in previous years rebuffed unity overtures of the Communist Party, but delegates to the WAA's founding convention received Communist Party Unemployed Councils leader
Herbert Benjamin
Herbert may refer to:
People Individuals
* Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert
Name
* Herbert (given name)
* Herbert (surname)
Places Antarctica
* Herbert Mountains, Coats Land
* Herbert Sound, Graham Land
Australia
* Herber ...
warmly, responding to his plea for organizational unity with an ovation.
Following Benjamin's speech a formal resolution of the convention criticizing the Unemployed Councils of the USA as pawns of the Communist party was withdrawn.
Growing sentiment for unity was apparent.
The resolutions of the founding convention of the Workers Alliance were presented at the White House by Lasser on March 4, 1935.
[United Press]
"Call at White House to Petition President,"
''Oshkosh IDaily Northwestern,'' March 5, 1935, pg. 11. Chief among these were a call for adoption of a 30-hour work week without reduction of wages and universal unemployment insurance, to be paid for with taxes on gifts and incomes greater than $5,000 per year as well as worker representation on all committees established for the purpose of administering social insurance.
Development
Headquarters of the WAA was initially established in the Socialist Party bastion of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...
.
["Local Unemployed Association to Join State Union,"]
''Edinburg NDaily Courier,'' March 21, 1935, pg. 1. Immediately after the group's formation clearly inflated membership figures began to appear in the press, including an absurd and grandiose March 1935 claim that the fledgling organization was backed by a membership of 450,000 people in 28 states.
David Lesser was named president of the organization, with Paul Rasmussen of Milwaukee in charge of day-to-day operations as the group's national secretary.
Despite such patently obvious misstatements of membership size, the WAA did immediately begin constructive work with top officials 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 mutu ...
(AF of L) with respect to standards and practices relating to
Depression-related unemployment relief. In April 1935 WAA Chairman Lasser announced that agreement had been reached with AF of L President William Green relating to the organization of workers employed through the government's $4.8 billion work relief program with a view to the unionization of those so employed. The joint program of the WAA and AF of L was said to include payment of
union scale
__NOTOC__
A pay scale (also known as a salary structure) is a system that determines how much an employee is to be paid as a wage or salary, based on one or more factors such as the employee's level, rank or status within the employer's organiza ...
for all skilled workers, a minimum payment of $30 per week for all workers on relief, and provision for
collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...
for all workers on work-relief projects.
Existing local and state workers' relief organizations began to change their names to match that of the new national organization during the rest of 1935, exemplified by the Wisconsin Workers Committee changing its name to the Wisconsin Workers Alliance in becoming the state affiliate of the WAA. State groups retained autonomy of action in pushing state and local governments towards unemployment relief, with the Illinois Workers Association issuing a call for a Hunger March at the state capitol in
Springfield
Springfield may refer to:
* Springfield (toponym), the place name in general
Places and locations Australia
* Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast)
* Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council)
* Springfield, Queenslan ...
to its 226 local affiliated groups for May 21–22, 1935 — a call endorsed after the fact by National Secretary Rasmussen on behalf of the national Workers Alliance organization.
Together with officials of organized labor, the WAA was also active in the summer of 1935 in coordinating strikes of workers in New York and Pennsylvania employed by the federal government's
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
(WPA) over what were deemed to be inadequate wages for employees engaged in WPA work-relief projects.
1936 merger
Unity negotiations between the three parties — the Workers Alliance of the Socialists, the Unemployed Councils of the Communists, and the
National Unemployed Leagues of the Musteite movement — began in April 1935.
A full year of negotiations would follow, with no merger achieved between the Workers Alliance and the Unemployed Councils until April 1936. As a condition of unification, the Communists were forced to surrender their old organizational name and to accept the Workers Alliance's title.
[Klehr, ''The Heyday of American Communism,'' pg. 296.] The CPUSA was also force to accept a minority of seats on the governing executive board of the organization, which retained Socialist Lasser as national chairman and Communist Benjamin as organizational secretary.
The Communist Party's Unemployed Councils organization shared the WAA's propensity for public assertion of inflated membership rolls, claiming a membership of 300,000 in 1935 and 600,000 in 1936 just prior to the Unity convention.
[Klehr, ''The Heyday of American Communism,'' pg. 297.] These farcical totals were belied by a more sober estimate which Herbert Benjamin privately provided to the Politburo of the CPUSA at the time of the 1936 merger, at which he state the membership of the Unemployed Councils as 8,500 and estimated the dues paying membership of the Workers Alliance in the range of 15,000 to 20,000.
The day after the Unity Convention some 500 members and sympathizers of the WAA marched to the White House, their line of march watched by 100 police officers.
["Hunger March Holds Parade: Red Banners are Carried Down the Streets of the Capital,"]
''Daily Chronicle'' eKalb, IL April 11, 1936, pg. 1. The marchers, parading under red banners, called for launch of a new $6 billion work-relief program, with David Lasser and four other members of the national committee granted a 30-minute audience with Presidential secretary Marvin McIntryre.
Following the meeting Lasser declared to the press his growing dissatisfaction with President Roosevelt, who he felt was sacrificing the interests of the unemployed to the expediencies of his 1936 reelection campaign.
"We told
cIntyrethat we were tired of Mr. Roosevelt's promissory notes, always being renewed and renewed again, with indefinite dates," Lasser declared.
Historian
Harvey Klehr
Harvey Elliott Klehr (born December 25, 1945) is a professor of politics and history at Emory University. Klehr is known for his books on the subject of the American Communist movement, and on Soviet espionage in America (many written jointly with ...
indicates that membership of the WAA did exhibit growth after unification, however, in large measure as a result of growth of the WPA jobs program and the ability of now employed WPA workers to pay the relatively nominal dues of the WAA.
Despite misgivings about painting itself into a corner as a de facto trade union for WPA employees, it seems that in practice the WAA became exactly that, with WPA employees constituting some 75 percent of the organization's dues paying membership by 1939.
The survival of the WAA was thus intimately linked with the fate of the WPA program, with periodic layoffs of WPA workers due to budgetary constraints playing havoc with the WAA's membership rolls.
[Klehr, ''The Heyday of American Communism,'' pg. 298.]
The WAA unsurprisingly dedicated a great deal of its political effort to pushing Congress and the Roosevelt Administration to reverse cuts to the WPA budget and to renew financial commitment to relief efforts on behalf of the unemployed.
A National Jobs March was called by the WAA during the summer of 1937, but the response was tepid, with only 2,500 people joining the temporary city constructed in WPA-supplied tents near the
Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is a U.S. national memorial built to honor the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument, and is in the ...
.
Steady rain further demoralized the strikers, who quietly demonstrated outside the White House and Capitol before fading away.
Official organs
The WAA published an official organ in the form of a newspaper published in Milwaukee called ''The Workers Alliance.''
[Chad Alan Goldberg]
""Contesting the Status of Relief Workers During the New Deal: The Workers Alliance of America and the Works Progress Administration, 1935-1941,"
''Social Science History,'' vol. 29, no. 3 (Fall 2005), pg. 362. Both of these publications are available on microfilm through Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes
Bobst Library, New York University. At least 18 issues were produced from the publication's launch on August 15, 1935, and September 1936.
A second publication, ''Work,'' was launched in Washington, D.C., on April 9, 1938, with publication continuing at least through November 1940.
Demise and legacy
The disintegration of the size and strength of the Socialist Party of America as a result of factional warfare stood in marked contrast to the expansion in size of the Communist Party in connection with its nominally patriotic and democratic political line expounded in its slogan "Communism is 20th Century Americanism," and the relative influence of the two organizations waned and waxed accordingly. By 1938 the WAA was thoroughly dominated by the Communist Party, effectively becoming an appendage of that organization.
In its final years the WAA evolved into something resembling a typical political pressure group, publicly pushing the WPA's agenda for greater levels of funding.
[Klehr, ''The Heyday of American Communism,'' pg. 299.] Communist Party General Secretary
Earl Browder
Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s.
Duri ...
would later romanticize the WAA's place in the political process, declaring:
Whenever the WPA had an appropriation up, Congress would shave it down to half. Then we would put on demonstrations in six cities; Congress would bring it up to two-thirds. We'd put on another series of demonstrations and they'd get their appropriation.[Earl Browder, Letter to Theodore Draper of Oct. 10, 1955; cited in Klehr, ''The Heyday of American Communism,'' pp. 299-300.]
Both the Communist Party and the Roosevelt administration had new and more important agendas as the 1930s came to a close, with the Communists and the administration thoroughly alienated from one another with the signing of the
Nazi-Soviet Pact in the summer of 1939 and the subsequent eruption of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in Europe. While the WPA would nominally continue until 1943, the Workers Alliance of America would be terminated in 1941.
The archives of the Workers Alliance of America are housed at the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...
in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
.
["Workers Alliance of America Records: Online finding aid,"]
University of Pittsburgh Library System Service Center, Pittsburgh, PA, April 2007. Included in the collection are the papers of David Lasser as well as copious files on the organization assembled by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
of the
United States Justice Department
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...
.
Conventions
References
Further reading
* Edwin Amenta, ''Bold Relief: Institutional Politics and the Origins of Modern American Social Policy.'' Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.
* Edwin Amenta and Drew Halfmann, "Wage Wars: Institutional Politics, WPA Wages, and the Struggle for U.S. Social Policy," ''American Sociological Review,'' vol. 65, no. 4 (Aug. 2000), pp. 506–528
In JSTOR* Franklin Folsom, ''Impatient Armies of the Poor: The Story of Collective Action of the Unemployed, 1808-1942.'' Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado, 1991.
* Chad Alan Goldberg
""Contesting the Status of Relief Workers During the New Deal: The Workers Alliance of America and the Works Progress Administration, 1935-1941,"''Social Science History,'' vol. 29, no. 3 (Fall 2005), pp. 337–371.
* Chad Alan Goldberg, "Haunted by the Specter of Communism: Collective Identity and Resource Mobilization in the Demise of the Workers Alliance of America," ''Theory and Society,'' vol. 32, no. 5/6 (Dec., 2003), pp. 725–773
In JSTOR* Stanley High, "Who Organized the Unemployed?" ''Saturday Evening Post,'' vol. 211, no. 24 (Dec. 10, 1938), pp. 8–9, 30–36.
* Harold R. Kerbo and Richard A. Shaffer, "Unemployment and Protest in the United States, 1890-1940: A Methodological Critique and Research Note," ''Social Forces,'' vol. 64, no. 4 (June 1986), pp. 1046–1105.
* Harold R. Kerbo and Richard A. Shaffer, "Lower Class Insurgency and the Political Process: The Response of the U.S. Unemployed, 1890-1940," ''Social Problems,'' vol. 39, no. 2 (May 1992), pp. 139–115.
* Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward. ''
Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail.'' New York: Vintage, 1978.
* Roy Rosenzweig, "Radicals and the Jobless: The Musteites and the Unemployed Leagues, 1932–1936." ''Labor History,'' vol. 16, no. 1 (Winter 1975), pp. 52–77.
* Roy Rosenzweig, "'Socialism In Our Time': The Socialist Party and the Unemployed, 1929–1936." ''Labor History,'' vol. 20, no. 4 (Fall 1979), pp. 485–509.
* James E. Sargent, "Woodrum's Economy Bloc: The Attack on Roosevelt's WPA, 1937-1939," ''Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,'' vol. 93, no. 2 (April 1985), pp. 175–207
In JSTOR* Helen Seymour, ''The Organized Unemployed.'' PhD dissertation. University of Chicago, 1937.
External links
"Workers Alliance of America Records: Online finding aid,"University of Pittsburgh Library System Service Center, Pittsburgh, PA, April 2007.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Workers Alliance of America
1935 establishments in the United States
1941 disestablishments in the United States
History of labor relations in the United States
Socialist Party of America
Communist Party USA mass organizations