International Labor Union
Encyclopedia
The International Labor Union was a trade union in the northeastern United States from 1878-1887.
The ILU was founded by members of the Workingmen's Party of the United States
who were upset with the parties turn toward political action after the Newark convention of December, 1877. Some members wanted to concentrate on the economic organization of the working class and split from the renamed Socialistic Labor Party to found the International Labor Union in 1878. Members of the provisional committee of the new organization included Ira Steward, George Gunton, Albert Parsons
, Friedrich Adolph Sorge
, Otto Weydemeyer, J. P. McDonnell, George McNeill, Carl Speyer and George Schilling. It held its first congress in Paterson, New Jersey in December 1878.
The outlook and goals of the organization were broad. The ILUs program represented an amalgam of the eight hour philosophy that Steward had been propagandizing, and the industrial unionism
of McDonnell and Sorge. Both saw the wages system as a despotism. Immediate demands included reduction of hours, state and local labor bureaus, workplace inspection and prohibition of child labor. Reflecting the industrial unionist aspect of the organization were its goals to organized the unskilled and unorganized, to affiliate already existing unions with itself and to create a national, then international centralized union of all workers.
In practice its organizing efforts were largely concentrated among textile workers in New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. It had 700 members in July 1878. After leading a textile strike in Paterson, and organizing efforts in Fall River, Massachusetts, membership had grown to a reported 8,000. Afterword the organization rabidly shrunk to an estimated 15,000 in eight branches by February 1880, and a single branch, Hoboken, the next year. The organization was dissolved when the leader of the Hoboken branch, Sorge, moved to Rochester, New York in 1887.
The ILU was founded by members of the Workingmen's Party of the United States
Workingmen's Party of the United States
The Workingmen's Party of the United States , established in 1876, was one of the first Marxist-influenced political parties in the United States...
who were upset with the parties turn toward political action after the Newark convention of December, 1877. Some members wanted to concentrate on the economic organization of the working class and split from the renamed Socialistic Labor Party to found the International Labor Union in 1878. Members of the provisional committee of the new organization included Ira Steward, George Gunton, Albert Parsons
Albert Parsons
Albert Richard Parsons was a pioneer American socialist and later anarchist newspaper editor, orator, and labor activist...
, Friedrich Adolph Sorge
Friedrich Adolph Sorge
Friedrich Adolph Sorge was involved in the revolution of 1848. Sorge was a German communist who took part in the Baden rising of 1849. He lived in the United States as an emigrant and played a well-known part in the German and North American labor movement...
, Otto Weydemeyer, J. P. McDonnell, George McNeill, Carl Speyer and George Schilling. It held its first congress in Paterson, New Jersey in December 1878.
The outlook and goals of the organization were broad. The ILUs program represented an amalgam of the eight hour philosophy that Steward had been propagandizing, and the industrial unionism
Industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
of McDonnell and Sorge. Both saw the wages system as a despotism. Immediate demands included reduction of hours, state and local labor bureaus, workplace inspection and prohibition of child labor. Reflecting the industrial unionist aspect of the organization were its goals to organized the unskilled and unorganized, to affiliate already existing unions with itself and to create a national, then international centralized union of all workers.
In practice its organizing efforts were largely concentrated among textile workers in New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. It had 700 members in July 1878. After leading a textile strike in Paterson, and organizing efforts in Fall River, Massachusetts, membership had grown to a reported 8,000. Afterword the organization rabidly shrunk to an estimated 15,000 in eight branches by February 1880, and a single branch, Hoboken, the next year. The organization was dissolved when the leader of the Hoboken branch, Sorge, moved to Rochester, New York in 1887.