American Trade Unionism Principles, Organization,

by William Z. Foster

This book remains the most competent treatment of the principles and organization, strategy, and tactics, of the trade union movement. Drawing upon his life-long experience as an outstanding labor leader, the author shows the role of a militant Left in the trade unions, without which significant progress has proved impossible. Foster selected and edited his writings for this volume and supplied an introduction and epilogue. It is now reprinted as he prepared it in 1947.
The period covered in these writings runs back, roughly, half a century. While not a formal history of trade unionism during this time, the book nevertheless throws much light on the major developments in the trade union movement, It particularly highlights the long struggle of the left-wing and progressive forces for improved trade union organ-ization, policies, and leadership. The period in question was one of stormy and significant economic and political developments. American industry has expanded prodigiously and also has become highly monopolized. World capitalism has matured and entered into its final stage of imperialism. Two world wars, fascism, and endless class struggle have been expressions of this development of capitalism. The writings in this volume show how the American working class has reacted to this vital expansion and the decline of the world capitalist system. While there have been other compilations of writings on trade unionism, this is the first time that the policies, tactics, and role of the left wing during those past decades have been recorded in a single volume. Written in the midst of the struggle, the material assembled here is itself part of the living record of the American trade union movement.

Genres: Labor, History, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Labor organizer and Marxist politician. Joined the Socialist party in 1901, later became a Wobbly, Syndicalist, and Communist. Three times a presidential candidate of the Communist party.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting historical look at the tactics and politics of the early communist movement within the trade unions. Obviously much of this is quite dated if you're looking for immediately actionable advice for reviving our moribund labor movement, but there's still good stuff in here. While a lot of the pieces in the last quarter of the book from the WW2 era are mostly just a historical curiosity, the parts from Fosters early years in the movement, from the late teens to the mid 30s still has a lot we can learn from. The need for union democracy, the necessity to fight the ultraleft tendency towards isolationist dual unionism, the historical validation of Lenin's tactics for communists to work within existing trade unions, general strategy for strike support, all still very relevant today. Certainly not the first book I'm going to recommend to folks on organizing tactics (That would be Kim Moody's work for the historical/strategic side, various Labor Notes publications like Secrets of a Successful Organizer for the tactics side), it's still interesting and has some lessons worth learning.

[Hey Choom · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting autobiography of a man who played a role in American Communism from its beginning to its effective end.

[Lo · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Z Foster is not only an iconic communist but he is first and primarily a worker. Throughout the book, you see his ride into revolutionary union work was as a worker first, and as an organizer second.

Something that Chadwick said really resonated with me. Unions are the only truly democratic institution that workers will ever experience. And being organized in their workplace will extend its usefulness to being organized in the streets, with their neighbors in tenant unions, and supremely, allow them to open themselves up to more arenas of struggle that revolutionaries are fighting for.

What we focused on in both sessions of the book club were different because of the results of the elections. The 2nd session was focused on the political maturing of labor, how to not only be on the defensive but be on the counter offensive, and the strategies implemented in the Steel Strike. When we look at the political maturing of labor, Foster emphasizes we focus on 4 things: political character of worker issues, strong and ruthless opposition (or awareness of this opposition), numerical strength, and progressive leadership. Currently, we don’t meet any of those, so how do we meet those conditions?

We are about to bear the onslaught of the two wings of fascism, nationalism and corporatism, on top of labor. But this has happened before, and we won the 40 hour work week, pensions, social security, bills against apartheid. What is to be done in this current time in history? What can we not only claw into and hold but also win. Foster gives us a playbook, now we must apply that to our reality.

[Mason Wyss · Rating 4 out of 5]

While at times overly reliant on autobiographical story telling and distracted by Foster’s endless complaints about the AFL leadership, the book represents a great historical and tactical resource for trade unionists and communists. Even 72 years after publications, and another decade since many parts were written, the goals outlined to organize the great mass of unorganized workers and the steel strike strategy remain pertinent today. The political mission of the TUEL could have been written in the 21st century and had only a few points be irrelevant today, recognition of the USSR among them. The book is carried heavily by a few chapters, but the staying power of these chapters easily earns it a four-star rating.

[TheNomad · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Z. Foster

Good book overall. Really useful if you want to start organizing and doing work in real life rather than the Internet. Check it out. You can purchase this book through the website on International Publishers instead of Amazon. I highly recommend that you do so. It's amazing how much Foster got right (and some of the things he got wrong here and there).

[Jody Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for anyone involved in union work. Can be a bit repetitive at times but the selection from various periods shows how his thinking shifted but retained core elements. Most of the questions he addresses are still relevant today, just in different forms and with different peculiarities. History has shown he was right about a lot (though certainly not everything), and we can apply so much of this to current organizing.

[Chadwick Lazarescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

necessary reading for anyone in labor