Workers' Movements in the United States Confront Imperialism: The Progressive Era Experience

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Montgomery
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Business ◽  
American Federation Of Labor ◽  
World War ◽  
American Federation ◽  
Colonial Expansion ◽  
Imperial Expansion ◽  
The Republic

In 1898, the American Federation of Labor feared that colonial expansion would militarize the republic and undermine the living standards of American workers. Subsequent expansion of industrial production and of trade union membership soon replaced the fear of imperial expansion with an eagerness to enlarge the domain of American unions internationally alongside that of American business. In both Puerto Rico and Canada important groups of workers joined AFL unions on their own initiative. In Mexico, where major U.S. investments shaped the economy, anarcho-syndicalists enjoyed strong support on both sides of the border, and the path to union growth was opened by revolution. Consequently the AFL forged links there with a labor movement very different from itself. Unions in Mexico became tightly linked to their new government, while World War I drove the AFL's leaders into close collaboration with their own. The Pan-American Federation of Labor was more a product of diplomatic maneuvering than of class solidarity.

Dialectical Relationships

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth McKillen
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
American Federation Of Labor ◽  
World War ◽  
American Federation ◽  
The World ◽  
At Home

This chapter examines the themes of collaboration and resistance during the period of U.S. belligerency. It first considers the controversy over the Root diplomatic mission, led by American Federation of Labor (AFL) Vice President James Duncan, that visited Russia in the wake of the March revolution that overthrew the Czar. It then discusses the debate over the collaborationist strategies of AFL and the prowar Socialists throughout World War I, along with the antiwar culture of the Industrial Workers of the World and its decision to continue strike and organizing activities despite government pleas for patriotic unity. It also explores the Socialist Party's anticonscription and antiwar activities as well as the AFL's collaboration with the Wilson administration in promoting its war policies both at home and abroad.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth McKillen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Governance ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
World War ◽  
American Federation ◽  
International Labor

This book explores the corporatist alliance between President Woodrow Wilson and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and how it sparked debates over his foreign policy programs within labor circles. During World War II, Wilson pledged to make the world “safe for democracy.” For Wilson, the cooperation of the United States and international labor movements was critical to achieving this goal. To win domestic and international labor support for his foreign policies, Wilson solicited the help of AFL's conservative leaders. This book traces the origins of the partnership that developed between the Wilson administration and AFL leaders to promote U.S. foreign policy, from its tentative beginnings during policy deliberations over how the United States should respond to the Mexican revolution, through World War I, to its culmination with the creation of the International Labor Organization (ILO). It details the significant opposition to the Wilson–AFL collaboration that arose among U.S., transnational, and international labor, Socialists, and diaspora Left groups and how this opposition affected Wilson's efforts to create a permanent role for labor in international governance.

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY AND TAX REGIMES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1763 TO THE PRESENT

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Elliot Brownlee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
World War ◽  
Ability To Pay ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Tax Regimes ◽  
The Republic

The essay explores how ideas about social justice and economic performance shaped the debates over federal taxation in the United States since the origins of the republic. The debates were most intense during major national emergencies (the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II), and each debate produced a new tax regime-a tax system with its own characteristic tax base, rate structure, administration apparatus, and social purpose. The criterion of "ability to pay" and a concern for economic efficiency powerfully shaped the formation of every tax regime, but "ability to pay" became the more influential of the two considerations during the national crises of the twentieth century.

Divergent Responses to Identical Problems: Businessmen and the Smoke Nuisance in Germany and the United States, 1880–1917

1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Uekoetter
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
National Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Community ◽  
American Business ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
World War ◽  
Common Misconception ◽  
Additional Costs ◽  
General Desire

This article counters a common misconception that business was universally opposed to air pollution control at the beginning of the twentieth century. In comparing the reaction of German and American businessmen to smoke abatement efforts before World War I, it shows that behavior was primarily shaped by national culture, rather than by a general desire to “externalize costs.” German smoke abatement did not meet significant resistance from industrialists, with regulation being based on a general consensus of all parties involved—a process which turned out to be as much a chance for abatement as it was an impediment for reforms. The American business community was split into two factions: those opposed to smoke abatement because they feared additional costs and the intrusion of factories by officials, and others, frequently organized in Chambers of Commerce or similar civic associations, who took a broader perspective and argued that the economic prospects of their city were at stake. The ultimate success of the latter group was largely due to changes in strategy, which allowed businessmen to develop a more positive attitude toward smoke abatement while simultaneously increasing the effectiveness of regulation. Business, therefore, should not be viewed as an inevitably “negative force” in environmental regulation.

Industrial Workers of the World

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Cole
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Labor Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
World War ◽  
American Federation ◽  
The World

Perhaps the most important radical labor union in U.S. history, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) continues to attract workers, in and beyond the United States. The IWW was founded in 1905 in Chicago—at that time, the greatest industrial city in a country that had become the world’s mightiest economy. Due to the nature of industrial capitalism in what, already, had become a global economy, the IWW and its ideals quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. The Wobblies, as members were and still are affectionately known, never were as numerically large as mainstream unions, but their influence, particularly from 1905 into the 1920s, was enormous. The IWW captured the imaginations of countless rebellious workers with its fiery rhetoric, daring tactics, and commitment to revolutionary industrial unionism. The IWW pledged to replace the “bread and butter” craft unionism of the larger, more mainstream American Federation of Labor (AFL), with massive industrial unions strong enough to take on ever-larger corporations and, ultimately, overthrow capitalism to be replaced with a society based upon people rather than profit. In the United States, the union grew in numbers and reputation, before and during World War I, by organizing workers neglected by other unions—immigrant factory workers in the Northeast and Midwest, migratory farmworkers in the Great Plains, and mine, timber, and harvest workers out West. Unlike most other unions of that era, the IWW welcomed immigrants, women, and people of color; truly, most U.S. institutions excluded African Americans and darker-skinned immigrants as well as women, making the IWW among the most radically inclusive institutions in the country and world. Wobbly ideas, members, and publications soon spread beyond the United States—first to Mexico and Canada, then into the Caribbean and Latin America, and to Europe, southern Africa, and Australasia in rapid succession. The expansion of the IWW and its ideals across the world in under a decade is a testament to the passionate commitment of its members. It also speaks to the immense popularity of anticapitalist tendencies that shared more in common with anarchism than social democracy. However, the IWW’s revolutionary program and class-war rhetoric yielded more enemies than allies, including governments, which proved devastating during and after World War I, though the union soldiered on. Even in 2020, the ideals the IWW espoused continued to resonate among a small but growing and vibrant group of workers, worldwide.

Making the World Safe for Workers

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth McKillen
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
American Federation Of Labor ◽  
World War ◽  
American Federation ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Major Fault ◽  
War Mobilization ◽  
The Impact ◽  
American Labor

This intellectually ambitious study explores the significance of Wilsonian internationalism for workers and the influence of American labor in both shaping and undermining the foreign policies and war mobilization efforts of Woodrow Wilson's Administration. The book highlights the major fault lines that emerged within labor circles as Wilson pursued his agenda in the context of Mexican and European revolutions, World War I, and the Versailles Peace Conference. The book's spotlight falls on the American Federation of Labor, whose leadership collaborated extensively with Wilson, assisting with propaganda, policy, and diplomacy. At the same time, other labor groups (and even sub-groups within the AFL) vehemently opposed Wilsonian internationalism. As the book shows, the choice to collaborate with or resist U.S. foreign policy remained an important one for labor throughout the twentieth century. In fact, it continues to resonate today in debates over the global economy, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the impact of U.S. policies on workers at home and abroad.

From the War-Garden to the Victory Garden: Political Aspects of Garden Culture in the United States during World War I

1992 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War
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