The 1930s and 40s were both vibrant and trying times for American workers. The two decades encompassed a great depression, and a concluding Second World War. Uniquely, among these conditions, the labor movement in America was led by various groups; from radicals "reds" such as the Communist Party(CPUSA) to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The vivacity of the 1930s labor movement should be seen as militancy for collective action among workers, perpetuated by external societal conditions. Both race and anticommunism played heavy roles in the resistance movement against labor organization by both white southern workers and upper level officials and state legislators. Memphis, TN was chosen by Michael Honey as the focus study of analyzing the history of labor organization in the South, and provides a deep insight into the realities of race, anticommunism, and their effect on labor conditions. The fight for community and worker solidarity within the workplace was a vibrant struggle against not only harsh economic conditions, but also social conditions that sought to alienate racial and ethnic groups to fragment the Southern labor movement into stagnation.
In the mid 1930s, three major groups became the focus of agitating unemployment conditions while promoting unionism and opposition to racial segregation; The Communists, Socialists, and religious followers. Michael Honey points out that these groups "came to identify the working class as the central force in changing social conditions in the region."[1] Central to this identification was the guiding ideology that conditions are created, not given; that workers are exploited by the fruits of their own labor and only through social change can their needs be met. During what was termed the 'popular front' era, Communists, Socialists, and labor leaders set aside their differences to work together with the national New Deal coalition and secure the passing of both the National Labor Relations Board, and the Wagner act by the middle of the decade.[2] Formal organizations such as the Communist Party actively sought solidarity among workers by seeking to unite workplaces under its banner of Marxism. Honey points out that the Communist Party had "unprecedented activity in support of black self-determination and labor rights that established much of the groundwork for an ongoing civil rights and labor alliance in the South."[3] In this way, CPUSA had done what many people give credit to individuals such as Rosa Parks: They challenged the racial status quo and suggested that change was not only possible, but an achievable reality within a generation.
The militancy of the CPUSA's activities during this era can be seen within the UCAPAWA, during the height of red baiting and anti-CIO demonstrations. As the Socialist Party led into decline, the CPUSA 'capitalized' on their downfall by dominating staff positions within the Union and leading the march to full integration with the CIO. As Honey put it, the Communist-led UCAPAWA "represented the CIO's best efforts to organize racially and ethnically oppressed workers."[4] The Communist Party was successful primarily in these diverse industries that had basically one trait in common: "they worked in some of the lowest-paying industries in the United States, and belonged to left out, despised ethnic groups."[5] But it was these key industries and these specific groups that perpetuated the success of both the CIO and the CPUSA's activities in the South during the 'Popular Front'. Radicals continued to prove to be an important asset in advancing unionism across class, gender, and racial boundaries. If the CIO or a Communist-led Union was able to breach the divide between boundaries and make workers realize that only together can they produce a more fair and equitable system, then they had done their job.
This issued challenge by Communists and labor organizers within the CIO sent a powerful message to the leaders in Memphis, the dubbed "Crump Machine". To them, both the labor movement and the Party "directly challenged white supremacy, even declaring support for the dreaded 'social equality'."[6] The CIO stood alongside the Communist Party and other labor groups in its support for black workers and an improvement of working conditions. The CPUSA further strengthened its ties to both the CIO and the Democratic Government in 1936 by supporting Roosevelt's reelection. In this sense, the union leaders of the CIO and the revolutionary leaders of the CPUSA were dedicated to a "people's front"[7] against both segregation and poor labor conditions in the South.
The end of the 'Popular Front' was brought on by two key moments in the labor movement's activities. First, the CPUSA was faced with an identity crisis in 1939. While trying to adhere to a 'people's front' against segregation in cooperation with the Roosevelt Administration, CPUSA was also an internationally directed organization for the Communist International led by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union(CPSU) in Moscow. Once the Soviet Union made a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in September of 1939, the CPUSA almost overnight realigned its platform against Roosevelt and war, while promoting direct-democracy and a strong US-Soviet alliance.[8] This led to a quick breakdown within Unionism as the CIO did not adhere to such radical policies, nor did it take orders from an international organization. Honey stated that the isolationism created by CPUSA's shift "placed it in a position to challenge those at the top of the [CIO],", allowing non-Communist led unions to take precedent and an overall shift in unionism ideology.[9] The second key moment that ended the 'Popular Front' were a series of successive purges of former Communists within the CIO's key unions in an attempt to disassociate themselves with the recently shifted CPUSA. This was obviously an ideological shift for the CIO as well: "Although the Communists helped to build the CIO while fascists and Klan members tried to tear it down, the CIO had circumscribed them both as enemies of the labor movement."[10] From 1939 on, these two shifts in policy inevitably broke down the biracial and class cooperation created in the mid-1930s by the CIO and Party activities.
While the breakdown of the 'Popular Front' may have signaled trouble ahead for low-wage earning and minority workers, it did not come immediately. As Nazi Germany invaded Poland, the American industry also shifted itself to meet the upcoming demand of war supplies. As Roosevelt increased spending for war industries, the demand for labor steadily grew. The entire process was facilitated by a large group of government agencies, such as the War Production Board who "directed conversion of civilian plants to military production," the Board of Economic Warfare who "allocated short supplies of rubber and petroleum," and the War Manpower Commission who "coordinated both military conscription and the war production workforce."[11] The facilitation of industry by these government agencies however, came with a price for workers. While the demand for labor quickly boomed families out of economic woes, the war industry also demanded cooperation and a no-strike pledge (despite numerous 'wildcat' strikes).[12] Under these circumstances, many disparities between races, ethnicity, and classes blended; but at the same time there was an understood sense of duty. If workers went on strike, they placed the nation at large in danger by failing to produce the commodities needed to win the war.
As war broke out, the CIO obtained key victories that secured its legitimacy and its presence in American industries that would prove to be crucial after the war. One of these key victories was at the Firestone plant in Memphis. On the 28th of April in 1942, "CIO United Rubber Workers won an NLRB-sponsored election in competition with the AFL by a vote of 911 to 521." This victory "placed the most prized jewel of the city's 1930s industrialization efforts in the CIO column."[13] After winning over Firestone the CIO spread its support throughout most war-related industries such as Ford and Fisher. Victories such as these proved crucial after the war because of the effect that the CIO's and CPUSA's overall shift in ideology had on the militancy of unionism that had characterized the 1930s. As racial and political barriers reaffirmed themselves in the late 1940s, they could not tear down the achievements and contracts gained during the war.
Near the end of the war, the world had changed rapidly away from the realities many people had come accustomed to in the 1930s and during the war. The biggest change was the rise and dominance of an international Communist superpower, one that claimed to represent the class of proletarian workers around the world. As the interests of the Soviet Union and the United States became increasingly at odds with one another between 1944-1947, the labor movement was faced with a dark and deceptive era of blacklists, union busting, repeals against Wagner Act policies, and worst of all: the stagnation of the movement on a whole. Labor had a few social systems on its side however; primarily that they had obtained the legal right for collective bargaining, and the industries with which they retained contracts.
In Memphis, the last ditch resistance efforts by the Crump Machine at war's end were centered on upholding the Jim Crow laws within the city limits. Jim Crow was effectively a post-civil war statute that permitted segregation within certain borders; but its most successful job was promoting racism. Racism was one of the bread-and-butter tools of the Crump Machine. By segregating workers and promoting racism, the elites of Memphis could effectively dismember and dislodge the effectiveness of unionization. The leaders within the Crump Machine did this "wrapped in the patriotic flag of anticommunism."[14] By April of 1948, it appeared that this tactic was working when 450 black workers went on strike at Nickey Brother's lumber company within the city, but over 200 white workers refused to share the strike. The one thing that saved these striking blacks, were the activities of known communist Red Davis, who promoted mass picketing by the National Maritime Union. Davis' resistance was successful in convincing white scabs to join the strike, and culminated in the capitulation of management.[15] Red Davis continued to show what had already been proven prior to the war: Unity among blacks and whites in Memphis was the strongest weapon workers had against management.
The racism fostered by Crump's upholding of Jim Crow made white workers perceive unionism as a means of placing them in a minority position to blacks, since the union itself was primarily made up of black workers. Employers in Memphis "increasingly encouraged racial divisions and used scab labor to kill off unions" because they knew that a divided workforce is not a united workforce. It did not take long for white workers to realize the benefit for unionization after seeing its progress in neighboring towns and industries:
"When [workers] discovered that without a union their $.45 starting wage was a third less than that paid to Harvester workers in the North; without a union, the company could force them to work overtime, make them pay for their own gloves, and even refuse to let production workers use the bathrooms without a supervisor's approval."[16]
The workers voted in the CIO-sponsored UAW by a vote of 833 to 4. The white workers reconciled their conditions by ignoring commitments to racial equality among the workforce, and instead preferred the benefits of the union's presence. In a way this still shows that on a certain level, classism was taking precedent over racism; it was more important for workers to have better social conditions as a whole, then to accept a social divide on the premise of race.
The militancy of unionism and the struggle for worker solidarity was an aspect of the Great Depression and World War 2 that is rarely discussed because of how it is dwarfed by larger, overarching circumstances. None-the-less, along with 'The depression era' and 'The WWII era', the 1930s and 40s could jointly be called the 'Era of Labor'. The experience of these individuals is an ideal example of how workers in Memphis were able to struggle through the antiunionism, anticommunism, and racism that was perpetuated by the ruling elites. Memphis workers had to slowly realize over time that only through unity, and by breaking down racial barriers could unionism succeed. This militancy to thrive and obtain better living conditions is one of the most representative examples of proletarian class awareness since the 19th century. By the end of the 1940s, unionism had become as much a part of American life as Coca Cola, and hopefully we can continue to develop as a society from the traditions of early unionism and perpetuate a growing awareness for the interests of us all.
Bibliography
Honey, Michael K. Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993.
Murolo, Priscilla, and A.B. Chitty. From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend. New York: The New Press, 2001.
[1] Honey, Michael. Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights (Chicago: University of Illinois, 1993), p. 117
[2] Murolo, Priscilla & A.B. Chitty. From the Folks who Brought You the Weekend (New York: The New Press, 2001), p. 200
[3] Honey, p. 118
[4] Ibid, p. 130
[5] Ibid, p. 131
[6] Honey, p. 118
[7] Ibid, p. 119
[8] M&C, p. 219
[9] Honey, p. 142
[10] Honey
[11] M&C, p. 224
[12] Ibid, p. 227
[13] Honey, p. 185
[14] Honey, p. 246
[15] Honey, p. 246
[16] Ibid, p. 247
