William Z. Foster

William Edward Foster (February 25, 1881 - September 1, 1961), who renamed himself as William Z. Foster, born in Taunton, Massachusetts, was the long-time General Secretary of the Communist Party USA and trade union leader. In many ways a syndicalist at heart, he passed through the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, as well as leading the drive to organize the packinghouse industry during World War I and leading the steel strike of 1919 before joining the Communist Party in 1921. While he continued to focus on the Party's work within organized labor, he largely subordinated his own political views to the policies declared by the Comintern throughout his years in and out of leadership of the Party.

The steel strike of 1919

Foster turned his attention, while the packinghouse campaign was still underway, to another project: organizing steel workers. The problems here were even more complex: in addition to the history of defeated strikes and the deep ethnic divisions within the workforce, the steel mills were also divided by differences in skills, with the higher paid native-born skilled workers often looking down on their immigrant coworkers, who were often unskilled or semiskilled. Foster proposed a similar strategy, but on a much larger scale: a national campaign, led by a union council of all the craft unions and the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Tin and Steel Workers, that would organize all of basic steel simultaneously. Fitzgerald agreed to put his name on the project and sent Foster as the CFL's delegate to the AFL's 1918 convention to present the plan.

Related Topics:
Amalgamated Association of Iron, Tin and Steel Workers - 1918

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The AFL's reception was tepid: it endorsed a special conference to create a committee to organize steel workers, but each international union contributed only one hundred dollars apiece — leaving the committee with somewhat less than the $250,000 Foster estimated it needed. Many unions did, on the other hand contribute organizers, whom Foster used as his base.

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Without the funds to launch a truly national campaign, Foster decided to start close to home, sending organizers into Gary, Indiana and South Chicago, where they received a tumultuous outpouring of support, in August, 1918. The Chicago area was not, however, the heart of the steel industry; the Monongahela Valley was.

Related Topics:
Gary, Indiana - South Chicago - Monongahela Valley

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By the time that Foster sent organizers into that area several months later, however, the influenza epidemic had led the authorities to bar all public meetings; the announcement of the armistice soon led to widespread layoffs in the mills. The union no longer could rely on a tight labor market or a federal government interested in labor peace. The union faced other problems: the rivalries spurred by the constituent unions' self-interest and the omnipresent power of the industry, which had turned the Valley into a large version of a company town.

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Even so, the National Committee for Organizing Iron and Steel Workers managed to sign up more than 100,000 steel workers by early 1919. The strike vote, taken in August, 1919, was almost unanimous in favor of a strike. When the steel companies refused to meet with union officials, 250,000 steelworkers went out on strike on September 22.

Related Topics:
1919 - September 22

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The National Committee's organizing efforts had produced mixed results: while it enrolled around 350,000 steelworkers during the course of the strike, its greatest strength was among immigrant workers. Higher skilled native born workers gave the strike only lukewarm support, while black steelworkers gave it almost none at all in the Pittsburgh area and less than enthusiastic support elsewhere.

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The authorities attacked with their customary violence: within ten days fourteen people had been killed, all of them strikers or strike sympathizers. Vigilantes expelled Foster from Johnstown, Pennsylvania at gunpoint. Foster himself became the focus of a Congressional inquiry that was originally initiated to study the causes of the strike. In the meantime authorities barred strikers from meeting

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Foster spent most of his time raising money and organizing material assistance for strikers and their families. In the meantime General Leonard Wood imposed martial law in Gary while authorities in Pennsylvania broke up strike meetings wherever they could be found. By November, as funds were running low, the strike was losing steam. Foster and the other members of the committee voted to end it in January, 1920. Foster resigned from the committee in order to allow it to continue its work "with a clean slate".

Related Topics:
January - 1920

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