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ABSTRACT:
The "Third Period" trade union activities of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), especially the creation of independent "red" industrial unions as opposed to continuing to work within the craft-oriented American Federation of Labor (AFL) unions, has been widely criticized in the literature. The recent opening of the CPUSA archives has made it possible to reevaluate the Party's activities during this era. While the TUUL unions suffered major defeats and had difficulties in organizing in the heavy and mass production industries such as mining, textile, maritime and steel, these unions experienced considerable organizing success in light industries in New York City, particularly after the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933. Besides promoting industrial organization, the TUUL's vision of union organization was structurally different from that of the AFL. Specifically, the red industrial unions, unlike the AFL unions, attempted to promote democratic, rank-and-file participation in union affairs as opposed to leaving such activities solely in the hands of the union officialdom.
MUCH OF THE PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED LIERATURE on the trade union activities of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) during "Third Period Communism" has been highly critical of the Party's orientation to create independent "revolutionary," or "red," industrial unions in opposition to the craftoriented American Federation of Labor (AFL) unions at this time. The transformation of the CPUSA's trade union arm, the Trade Union Educational League (TUEL), to the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL) in 1929 had the explicit purpose of organizing Communistled "dual unions" in industries where AFL unions already existed. This appeared to be a dramatic shift in policy from the strategy of "boring from within" the AFL that had been in place for the greater part of the 1920s. Factional opponents that had been recently expelled from the CPUSA, the left-wing Trotskyists in 1928 and the right-wing Lovestoneites in 1929, argued that establishment of these revolutionary industrial unions was decidedly un-Leninist and called for their liquidation and the Party's return to working within the craft unions. However, the TUUL remained a central component of the CPUSA's trade union strategy until late 1934 when the Communist International (Comintern) embarked on its Popular Front strategy and ordered the Party to dissolve its red unions and reenter the AFL.
Klehr (1984, 118)...