Take It Easy, But Take It

"C.I.O. ORGANIZERS SIGN STEEL WORKERS! STRUTHERS, OHIO - The steel strike became a weekend siege today, with no hope of peace in sight until after Monday holiday. With production almost stopped at the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and the Inland Steel Co. plants, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee concentrated their forced on Republic Steel Corporation plants still operating. Above photo shows C.I.O.-S.W.O.C. organizers signing up steel workers of the Struthers, Ohio plant of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. 5/28/37"

This pamphlet is fascinating, but perhaps the real gems here are the preamble to the MWIU and the list of headquarters on the back page. MWIU were a militant communist organization. They were the marine section of the Trade Union Unity League who were directly affiliated with the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU). In the early 1920's the communist international's strategy was to form "red" communist run unions instead of trying to enter and radicalize existing AFL unions.  In the United States, MWIU set to work building a militant industrial union for waterfront workers. Most of their activity was in New York. They advocated industrial unionism exclusively and laid the foundation for the major surge in organizing in the mid 1930's with the formation of the Committee for Industrial Organizations. Most of the TUUL sections would transition into CIO unions. The MWIU helped establish the National Maritime Union (CIO), Likewise, the Cannery & Agricultur...