Futility of Fosterism by One Big Union

PRIMARY DOCUMENTS OF LABOUR HISTORY
WESTERN CANADIAN SYNDICALISM (PACIFIC USA)
THE ONE BIG UNION #OBU
Futility of #Fosterism
by One Big Union
https://archive.org/details/FutilityOfFosterism
RARE
A critique of the labor politics of William Z Foster and the Communist Party of America's Trade Union Education League (TUEL). Author Ben Legare was the main US organizer for the One Big Union (OBU) a socialist union founded in western Canada by dissident members of the American Federation of Labor. this publication has been difficult to find, whilst often quoted in US labor history works.

"The strange thing about what we will call "Fosterism" in this pamphlet
is that it was suddenly revived in the United States in 1920 just
as the influence ~of the Western Canadian secession movement was' beginning
to be felt on the American side of the border."

WHEN ALBERTA WAS RED AND NOT JUST RED NECK
I met one T.U.E.L. organizer in Calgary addressing a meeting of the
"militants" of Calgary. When I arrived at the meeting place with a
couple of O.B.U. members I found five "militants" including another of
~our O.B.U. members and the speaker, Bartholomew. No effort was made
at all by Bartholomew to refute any of my arguments against the
T.U.E.L. policy and "Bart" afterward tried to convince me that he was
really "boring-from-within" in the interest of the O.B.U., but in view of
the malicious attacks that have been made upon the O.B.U., using the
same propaganda against it as used by the Manitoba Employers' Association,
it is not easy to believe in the sincerity of the alibi.
On the Pacific Coast, around Vancouver, the followers of Foster did
succeed in breaking up the O.B.U.; though a share of the credit for that
achievement should be given to the agents of the North West Mounted
Police working "undercover," in the regular report to Moscow; and Losovsky
should also be informed that after breaking up the O.B.U. they
did not succeed in getting the slaves back into the A. F. of L., so the net
result of the T.U.E.L. campaign in that sector has been the destruction
of all working class organization and the consequent discouragement of
the workers. The remaining vestiges of the A. F. of L. on the Vancouver
waterfront is now in process of being destroyed by a typical A. F. of L.
strike under T.U.E.L. leadership.
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In ~1919 a great insurgent movement was sweeping through the
unions of the A. F. of L. that had for its goal, One Big Union. Where
that movement took definite shape and became coherent the programme
advocated was SECESSION of local unions from their various Internationals
and the formation of One Big Union.
This movement was most advanced in Western Canada and the One
Big Union of Canada was the result.
~
It was formed by the SECESSION of most of the local unions in the
four western provinces of Canada and when it was launched in June, 1919,
it not only laid the foundation of a real labor movement but at the same
time it practically wiped out the A. F. of L. in western Canada and made
it impossible for ~that organization to ever again mobilize the mass of the
workers in that part of the country in a union controlled by the boss.
Though the A. F. of L. fought hard ,to recover that lost ground and' had
the help of the employers and the government and spent many hundreds
of thousands of dollars, it has never been able to re-establish its prestige
in Western Canada.
Though every effort has been made to destroy the' Canadian O.B.U.,
it has lived through the storm and today constitutes the firmest foundation
upon which a labor movement may be built on this continent.
The strange thing about what we will call "Fosterism" in this pamphlet
is that it was suddenly revived in the United States in 1920 just
as the influence ~of the Western Canadian secession movement was' beginning
to be felt on the American side of the border.
It was a time when the million and a half of workers that have since
dropped out of the A. F. of L. were in rebellion and beginning to tear at
the bonds that tied them up in the capitalist-controlled Internationals of
the A. F. of L.
Instead of promoting the SECESSION movement toward the One Big
Union, Foster and those who followed him began a frenzied campaign to
convince the insurgent unionists that they should "stay in the A. F. of L."

Topics One Big Union, OBU, Socialist Party of Canada, SPC, AFL, Communist Party of America, William Z. Foster, Trade Unions, AFL, TUEL, WSPUS, World Socialist Party (US), WSM, World Socialist Movement, SPGB, Socialist Party of Great Britain
Collection opensource #LABHIST #LABOR #LABOUR #LABORHISTORY
#CANADIANHIST #LABOURHISTORY #CANADIANHISTORY #CDNPOLI

NO DATE FOUND I THINK ITS AROUND 1925 FROM INTERNAL REFERENCES
EPLAWIUK