History ETDs

Publication Date

Summer 7-12-2024

Abstract

This thesis examines how the changing conditions after World War II impacted organized labor, focusing on secession movements within the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. Secessions in Connecticut and Alabama and the differing responses by the CIO Executive Board highlight how external pressures from postwar dynamics and increasing anticommunism undermined the left-liberal alliance in the Congress of Industrial Organizations. World War II increased labor’s reliance on government mediation, reducing the effectiveness of militant strategies. Following the war, assertive capital, restrictive labor legislation, the Cold War, and the rise in anti-Communism exacerbated tensions in the CIO, leading to the expulsion of eleven left-wing unions. This breakdown marked the transition from the progressive militancy of the New Deal era to the conservative business unionism of the 1950s and 1960s. By examining the secession movements and the differing responses of the CIO Executive Board, this study provides insight into the CIO’s reactions to the shifting conditions and new realities of the postwar era and their impact on organized labor.

Level of Degree

Masters

Degree Name

History

Department Name

History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Jason Scott Smith, PhD

Second Committee Member

Katherine Massoth, PhD

Third Committee Member

Samuel Truett, PhD

Keywords

Labor, Communism, Anticommunism, Mining, Alabama, Connecticut

Document Type

Thesis

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