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Samuel Gompers, Communism, and the Pan American Federation of Labor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Charles W. Toth
Charles W. Toth*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Puerto Rico
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Extract

The Primary purpose for the creation of the Pan American Federation of Labor was to foster the development of trade-unionism in Latin America. But from its inception at Laredo in 1918 until 1927, when the fifth and last congress was held, autonomous trade-unionism became a secondary endeavor. Uppermost for Samuel Gompers and his associates in the AFL was the effort to deal with problems largely political in character.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , January 1967 , pp. 273 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1967

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References

1 For a more detailed description of these efforts see the author’s article entitled “The Pan American Federation of Labor: Its Political Nature,” Western Political Quarterly (September, 1965), pp. 615–620.

2 AFL Proceedings, XXXV (1915), p. 57. Also the Appendix on page 88.

3 Proceedings, First PAFL Congress (1918), p. 16.

4 Gompers, Samuel, “To Pan-Americanize Labor,” American Federationist, XXIV (1917), pp. 208–209.Google Scholar

5 American Federations, XXIV (1917), p. 375.

6 Ibid., XXVI (1919), p. 232.

7 Iglesias, Santiago, “The Child of the AFL,” American Federationist, XXXII (1925), pp. 928–931.Google Scholar

8 Walling, W.E., “The AFL and the Soviets,” American Federationist, XXVI (1919), pp. 703–706.Google Scholar

9 American Federationist, XXVI (1919), pp. 318–320.

10 On the question of the I. W. W. see Proceedings, First PAFL Congress (1918), p. 9; also AFL Proceedings, XXXIX (1919), p. 88; and American Federationist, XXV (1918), p. 986.

11 American Federationist, XXVI (1919), p. 236.

12 Proceedings, Third PAFL Congress (1921), p. 8. Gompers, wrote in 1919 that “the Monroe Doctrine, which has just received a new consecration by being written into the League of Nations Covenant and which safeguards the political integrity of all the Pan American nations and secures them against foreign intervention, must and will be supported and underwritten by the PAFL. …” American Federationist, XXVI (1919), p. 236.Google Scholar

13 Proceedings, Fourth PAFL Congress (1924), p. 14.

14 Gompers, Samuel, “European Labor and Bolshevism,” American Federationist, XXX (1923), p. 566 Google Scholar. Also AFL Proceedings, XLIII (1923), p. 375.

15 American Federationist, XXX (1923), p. 238.

16 “Amsterdam “was the popular term for the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU).

17 AFL Proceedings, XLIV (1924), p. 88.

18 Although several attempts were made between 1921 and 1924 to establish other congresses, the lack of success was due primarily to the unstable conditions in Mexico. Actually the PAFL was not much larger than the combined forces of Mexican and American leadership. The PAFL was not so much an international organization, as it was a pact between the AFL and the CROM. On membership, see especially Proceedings, Third PAFL Congress (1921), p. 30.

19 American Federationist, XXXII (1925), p. 61.

20 Loc. cit. The CROM had expanded rapidly and by 1924 reached a membership of 1,200,000.

21 Proceedings, Fourth PAFL Congress (1924), pp. 108–111.

22 Proceedings, Fifth PAFL Congress (1927), p. 41.

23 See Proceedings of the 1924 congress, especially 108–111.