Unionization of Black Workers & the CIO

The establishment of the CIO in 1935 raised false hopes among black workers that equal employment opportunities would soon be forthcoming. Historically, organized labor had been used as a tool by whites for displacing blacks from desirable jobs or denying access to employment. Before the turn of the century, blacks were excluded from joining trade unions, including the powerful American Federation of Labor (AFL). The AFL and other skilled craft unions maintained strict policies of whites-only membership that were often written into their constitutions. These white supremacist policies included vigorous anti-Oriental campaigns against Asian workers. Exclusion from union protection and privileges relegated blacks to the lowest rungs of occupational categories--agricultural, menial, and domestic work. Not only did the AFL discriminate racially, it ignored the needs of unskilled workers and those employed in industrial mass production. The CIO stepped in to fill this gap and, although vi

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and racial solidarity. According to Goldfield (1993): "For many white industrial workers, the benefits of successful solidarity, even on a day-to-day level, often outweighed the benefits of racial exclusion and division. In the long run, antiegalitarianism was a losing strategy for almost all workers" (p. 23). For this reason, the early unionization efforts of the steel industry were characterized by interracial solidarity as whites supported the struggles of blacks for equality. Goldfield (1993) contends that the unions which experienced the most success in racial solidarity were left-led unions with interracial leadership. Even unions with large percentages of black rank-and-file members were often plagued by discrimination because the leadership was not committed to working for equality. In contrast, left-wing organizations recognized racial discrimination as an impediment to the objectives of socialism: "They tended to have and to promote more extensive Black leadership, organizers, and the general involvement of nonwhite workers, than did nonleft leaders, even in unions like Fur and Leather and the NMU, where there were not large percentages of African-American workers" (Goldfield, 1993, p. 26). Socialism advocated
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Approximate Word count = 2241
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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